Hardik Patel said "wasted my three years in this party".
Gujarat leader Hardik Patel, who quit the Congress yesterday, said he "is not in the BJP yet" and has not taken any decision on joining either the BJP or the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In another outburst against the Congress, he said he had "wasted" three years in the party.
"I am not in the BJP yet and have not taken any decision to go," Hardik Patel told reporters in Ahmedabad. But he kept speculation alive as he praised the BJP effusively on a range of subjects including the Ayodhya verdict and the scrapping of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
The Patidar leader quit the Congress on Wednesday with a stinging resignation letter targeting Rahul Gandhi, saying "top leaders" were distracted by their mobile phones and Gujarat Congress leaders were more interested in arranging chicken sandwiches for them.
BJP sources have talked about the 28-year-old leader joining the ruling party "within a week". The sources also claim he has been in talks with the BJP for two months.
Responding to speculation that he was joining the BJP or AAP, Hardik Patel said: "I have not taken any decision as of now on joining any political party, be it the BJP or AAP. Whatever decision I will take, it will be in the interest of the people."
Criticising the Congress, he said the party never spoke on "issues concerning Hindus", such as the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) or on claims of a "Shivling" found at the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi.
"The Gujarat Congress is too much into caste-based politics. I wasted my three years in this party," Mr Patel said.
"It is a fact that the Congress benefited immensely in the 2017 Assembly polls due to the Patidar quota agitation. However, I was not given any responsibility even after making me working president. I was not even invited to the key meetings of the party. It never arranged my press conference during the last three years," he said.
He claimed the Congress had no vision and that leaders of the party were biased against Gujarati people - like "Adani and Ambani".
"Seven-eight people have been running the Congress for 33 years. Activists like me travel 500-600 km daily. If I go among the people and try to know their situation, the big leaders here try to disrupt this effort by sitting in their AC rooms," he railed.
Referring to the Congress's "Chintan Shivir" or strategy camp held recently in Rajasthan, Mr Patel said the party needed chinta (worry) instead of chintan (brainstorming) as it "lacked any vision or formula" to win elections.