Hardik Patel is battling a controversy over a sex video which surfaced recently.
Hardik Patel, who is battling a
controversy over a sex video, today said that the people of Gujarat want to see video proof of 22 years of development, not of a 22-year-old boy.
It was his cheeky reference to video of a man resembling him with a woman in a hotel room that was aired on some channels in Gujarat this week. Hardik Patel, who is 24, says the hidden camera footage manufactured by the BJP, which has governed Gujarat for an uninterrupted 22 years. He has pledged to do his utmost to shatter that pattern.
The BJP has denied any link to the "sex CD". "We don't indulge in such dirty games. But if Hardik Patel says it's a fake video, why doesn't he file a police complaint?" asked BJP leader and union minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
Hardik Patel predicted earlier this month that a video of him having sex would be circulated to damage his reputation as Gujarat approaches its voting dates of December 8 and 14.
Yesterday,
new videos circulated on social media showed his lookalike drinking in a hotel room. Gujarat is a dry state.
NDTV cannot verify the authenticity of the videos.
Hardik Patel is asking his community, the Patidars or Patels, to end decades of support for the BJP and vote for the Congress this time around.
His complaint is that the BJP has failed to ensure that the Patidars, who form 14% of the population and were traditionally farmers, were inducted into the state's modernization as it industrialized. He says the Patels must therefore be included as beneficiaries of affirmative action policies, getting a guaranteed share of government jobs and seats in educational institutions.