Patidar leader Hardik Patel recently stated that not meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi ahead of the Gujarat polls was a mistake as it would have prevented the BJP from retaining power in the state.

The BJP retained Gujarat by winning 99 seats in the 182-member Assembly. Patel asserted, “I have said this before as well and I am saying it now. I did not meet Rahul Gandhi. If I can openly meet Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and (Shiv Sena president) Uddhav Thackeray, there was no issue in meeting Rahul. It was a mistake. Had I met him, the BJP would have won 79 and not 99 seats.”