Ahmedabad, 30 December 2011

Gujarat Congress today announced its plan to organize Sardar Sandesh Yatra(SSY) between 2-13 January covering all Lok Sabha constituencies and 160 assembly segments.

According to former Gujarat Congress President Shri Siddharth Patel, total six yatras will be organized on different routes. The first yatra will begin on 2nd January at Bardoli and end on 13 January at Anand/Vallabh Vidyanagar where a big public meeting will be organized at 1.00 pm. There will be two yatras from Ahmedabad. Other yatras will begin from Porbandar, Somnath and Mansa.

Siddharth Patel said that the yatra will cover total 6158 km distance with 96 mediam size public meeting and 285 small public meetings on route.

Departing date – departure place of yatra – last venue of yatra
2nd January – Bardoli – Anand led by Tushar Chaudhary
3rd January – Mansa – Anand led by Shankersinh Vaghela
4th January – Somnath – Anand led by Shaktisinh Gohil
5th January – Porbandar – Anand led by Arjun Modhwadia
5th January – Ahmedabad – Anand led by Narhari Amin
5th January -Ahmedabad – Anand led by Siddharth Patel and Bharatsinh Solanki

Siddharth Patel said the literature will be distributed on route and Gujarat’s various burning issues will be highlighted throughout the journey. He said the wrong direction of development and reality behind Modi’s propaganda will be put before the public during the yatra.

Speaking in the press conference, leader of the opposition Shri Shaktisinh Gohil said that all important state level leaders of the party will be together in 2nd and 3rd January functions. From fourth all leaders will go on yatra on their assigned route. Gohil said the leaders have decided to have night stay in local village on route.

Gujarat Congress President Arjun Modhwadia and former Chief Minister Shri Shankersinh Vaghela also addressed the press in this conference.

Faldu slams Congress for playing politics in the name of Sardar

Gujarat BJP President RC Faldu today termed Congress party’s Sardar Sandesh Yatra announcement as an attempt of cheating the public. Faldu said when Sardar was living, this Congress party did everything to prevent him to become Prime Minister. Congress always was reluctunt in giving away Bharat Ratna to Sardar. By giving OBC’s reservation quota to minority, Congress is breaking Sardar Patel’s pledge of unity of the country. Fladu said the people of Gujarat will never accept Congress party’s act of do politics in the name of Sardar Patel.

Narhari spilled the beans

In a press conference today organized to announce Sardar Sandesh Yatra, it was clearly visible that Gujarat Congress wants to get maximum Patel votes in the name of Sardar. Congress has come out with a photograph in which alleged BJP worker has put his leg over the head of the statue of Sardar Patel for tying BJP banners ahead of Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra in central Gujarat. BJP has time and again said that this photo is managed, there was no such BJP worker, and this photograph is a great falsehood being propagated by Gujarat Congress. However Gujarat Congress has put this photo in the literature of Sardar Sandesh Yatra prominently.

It is very clear that Gujarat Congress wants to distribute thousands of booklet showing such photo among Patels to provoke them against BJP in the name of Sardar Patel.

While other leaders in today’s press conference stayed away from ‘P’ for Patel issue, it was Narhari Amin who spilled the beans. Amin in his address to press, narrated how Narendra Modi “insulted” Patels during his regime. Amin gave examples of Keshubhai Patel, Vallabh Kathiria, Gordhan Zadafia among others who according to Amin, were cut-to-size or cornered by Modi. Thus knowingly or unknowingly, Amin revealed the possibly the real agenda behind Sardar Sandesh Yatra.

It should be noted that Patel community has been a strong supporter of BJP and particularly Shri Narendra Modi. Be it the farmers or the industrialists, in Modi’s regime Patels have progressed immensely. In past just at the time of the election, Keshubhai Patel, Gajera brothers, Vallabh Kathiria and Gordhan Zadafia employed their best efforts to snatch away Patel votes from BJP and Modi. However they were unsuccessful.

While limiting Keshubhai Patel to Patel community is okay, any attempt to limit Sardar saheb to just a small Patel community is unforgivable. This would be in fact injustice to the great stature of Sardar saheb.