Ahmedabad: For the second time in one week, Hardik Patel, who has been leading an agitating for reservations for the Patel community, has called off a protest march.
"Senior Gujarat cabinet minister Saurabh Patel has invited us for talks at 12:30 pm on Monday. He promised that if there is no solution till 7:30 in the evening, then we will take out the march on Tuesday," Mr Patel said at a late night press conference.
"This is not a dilution of our stand but a decision taken in the interest of law and order in the state," he said.
Earlier on Saturday, the 22-year-old leader had said the rally would go on "at any cost" even as the government had turned down his request for the rally a second time.
Last Sunday, the government had refused to approve a plan by Mr Patel's Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti or PAAS to take out a "reverse Dandi march", retracing a demonstration-walk led by Mahatma Gandhi against the colonial British government in 1930.
The group had sought government's permission to hold the march from Dandi to Ahmedabad, calling for the inclusion of the Patel community in other backward classes or OBC category for reservations.
The PAAS has been agitating, demanding reservation for the Patel community, also known as Patidars. Eight people, including a policeman, were killed in clashes after a police crackdown on a rally by Hardik Patel last month.
"Senior Gujarat cabinet minister Saurabh Patel has invited us for talks at 12:30 pm on Monday. He promised that if there is no solution till 7:30 in the evening, then we will take out the march on Tuesday," Mr Patel said at a late night press conference.
"This is not a dilution of our stand but a decision taken in the interest of law and order in the state," he said.
Last Sunday, the government had refused to approve a plan by Mr Patel's Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti or PAAS to take out a "reverse Dandi march", retracing a demonstration-walk led by Mahatma Gandhi against the colonial British government in 1930.
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The PAAS has been agitating, demanding reservation for the Patel community, also known as Patidars. Eight people, including a policeman, were killed in clashes after a police crackdown on a rally by Hardik Patel last month.
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