Gandhinagar: Rajkot based Khodaldham Trust chief Nareshbhai Patel is not nominated to Rajya Sabha from Punjab by Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Admi Party (AAP). Patel had recently visited the national capital Delhi. He had described his visit as purely a business visit and denied that he had met Arvind Kejriwal during this visit. However speculations were rife that he was in talks with AAP for nomination to Rajya Sabha from Punjab.

However Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Admi Party (AAP) has today announced its candidates for vacant Rajya Sabha seats in Punjab and Naresh Patel is not in the list. AAP has declared Sanjeev Arora, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Raghav Chadha and Sanjeev Arora as its candidates for Rajya Sabha from Punjab.

Patel who leads over a decade-old Religious-social organization Khodaldham Trust, founded by himself, recently announced that the opposition in the State must be strong. He also said he may declare his decision on joining politics by March-end this year. Patel who banks of Leuva Patidar community support (which may be only for social and religious causes of his organization but not political and personal to him) believes and says it openly that all posts right from Sarpanch to members of parliament and from clerk to collector should be occupied by Patidars. He gave a platform to Keshubhai Patel led then existing Gujarat Parivartan Party in 2012 assembly polls in parts of Saurashtra rgion, however GPP could get only 2 out of total 182 seats. Year 2015-16 violent Patidar quota agitation leaders accept him as a leader in their support. Naresh Patel’s son Shivraj also campaigned for Congress party candidate in 2017 assembly polls in individual capacity. DeshGujarat