Ahead of Gujarat polls, HC lifts ban on BJP leader Hardik Patel's entry into Mehsana district

Ahmedabad: With the Gujarat assembly elections 2022 just around the corner, the Gujarat High Court on Friday granted relief to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Hardik Patel by removing for a year a bail condition prohibiting him from entering the state's Mehsana district. Patel was banned from entering his home district of Mehsana in a rioting case connected with the 2015 Patidar quota stir. The young Patidar leader had filed the bail modification petition on November 7 on the ground that he wanted to offer prayers at the temple of his "kuldevi" (local deity). The court of Justice SH Vora granted temporary relief to Patel, "the bail condition that he will not enter his home district Mehsana has been removed for a year," Patel's lawyer Rafik Lokhandwala said.

The BJP on Thursday named Hardik as its candidate from the Viramgam seat in the Ahmedabad district.

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The party named its candidates for 84 of the 89 seats which will go to the polls in the first phase on December 1 and 76 of 93 candidates going to the polls in the second phase on December 5. 

A Gujarat court had, in July 2018, sentenced Patel and his aides Lalji Patel and AK Patel to two years in jail for rioting and arson that took place on July 23, 2015 in Visnagar town during the Patidar reservation agitation.

On that day, a mob torched a car and vandalised the office of Visnagar BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel. The Gujarat High Court had, in August 2018, suspended the lower court's order and granted him bail. The HC barred him from entering Mehsana as a bail condition and this continued even as his appeal against conviction remains pending before the court.

Gujarat will vote in two phases on December 1 and 8. The counting of votes has been scheduled for December 8.

(With PTI inputs)