The exit of Hardik Patel and Sunil Jakhar: Big blows or blessing in disguise for Congress?

Two back-to-back exits in the form of Hardik Patel and Sunil Jakhar may have come as big jolts for the Congress in terms of optics but their resignations would hardly have any bearing on the grand old party on the ground.

Going by their track record, both of them have been more of a liability than assets for Congress.

Patel, 28, seems to be a man in a hurry and his impatience and inconsistency are his drawbacks.

At the age of 20, he was a part of the quota agitation, spearheaded by the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) from 2015 onwards. The PAAS movement sought Other Backward Class (OBC) status for the Patidars.

The months-long agitation ultimately resulted in the resignation of the then Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel. She was replaced by Vijay Rupani who too was axed last year and a dark horse, Bhupendra Patel, became the chief minister.

By the time assembly elections took place in Gujarat in 2017, he was 22 and negotiating with Congress for the support of the influential Patidar community. The deal also included ten tickets on which he fielded the candidates of his choice.

He and Alpesh Thakor by now had impressed Rahul Gandhi to the extent that he wanted both of them in the Congress.

Thakor joined the Congress in October 2017 and also got elected to the Gujarat assembly from the Radhanpur constituency. He was subsequently appointed a secretary in the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

He quit Congress in April 2019 and joined the BJP in July. However, he lost the by-elections from the same seat on a BJP ticket in October 2019. Nothing much has been heard of him after that.

On the other hand, Patel joined Congress in March 2019. However, he could not contest the Lok Sabha elections after being convicted in a rioting case in Mehsana in 2015.

Patel was soon after appointed as the party's working president in Gujarat.

Then just 25, his appointment on the post had caused much resentment among the senior Gujarat Congress leaders.

But Patel was still not happy. He wanted to be the Gujarat Congress president and ultimately be named the party's chief ministerial candidate before the 2022 elections. But the Congress leadership was unwilling to oblige him, and that made him impatient and restless leading to his exit from the party on Wednesday (May 18).

Patel's parting gift to Rahul Gandhi was his resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in which he launched a no-holds-barred attack against the person who got him into the party.

Though he didn't name Rahul Gandhi, the target was obvious. 

“Whenever I met with the senior leadership, always felt that leaders were not really interested in hearing about problems concerning the people of Gujarat but were more engrossed on what messages they had received on their mobile and other such trivial things. Whenever our country faced challenges and when Congress needed leadership, Congress leaders were enjoying abroad! Senior leaders behave in a way like they hate Gujarat and Gujaratis,” wrote Patel. 

The last sentence is important given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi often accused the top Congress leadership of having deep hatred against Gujaratis.

Patel was equally harsh on Gujarat Congress leaders. “Big leaders of Congress in Gujarat are far away from issues of Gujarat but are more focussed on ensuring that Chicken Sandwich for leaders who have come from Delhi is delivered on time!" he said. 

Interestingly, the BJP government has initiated a move to drop all rooting cases against him, an indication of his future move.

The Supreme Court's order staying the proceedings in sedition cases has also come as a huge relief for him.

It remains to be seen if his exit will impact the Congress party's performance in the upcoming Gujarat polls.

Coming to Jakhar, he was appointed Punjab Congress chief in April 2017 at the insistence of Captain Amarinder Singh who had taken over as the chief minister. Son of late Congress leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar, he maintained a low profile till his appointment.

He was promoted only to keep Partap Singh Bajwa in check. Captain Amarinder also pushed him to contest the Lok Sabha by-election from Gurdaspur following Vinod Khanna's death in 2017. However, he lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the state against film star Sunny Deol.

Jakhar, 68, often faced criticism for not paying much attention to the organisation and for spending time abroad.

Jakhar and Navjot Singh Sidhu were the two leaders who caused immense damage to the Congress in the Punjab polls.

They opened a front against their own party chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi whose appointment was billed as a masterstroke by political observers. 

He was the first Dalit chief minister of Punjab and both Sidhu and Jakhar did everything to ensure the Congress party's defeat in the elections.

His outbursts against the BJP for allegedly destroying the country's secular fabric and for fomenting communalism may come back to haunt him as he joined the saffron party on Thursday. It also remains to be seen what all he brings to the BJP's plate in a state like Punjab where it is not a force to reckon with.