Tuesday's police action against Patidar agitators seeking quotas gave a fresh lease of life to the stir that appeared to be petering out after a public rift in the leadership and the melodramatic decision of the 22-year-old campaign leader Hardik Patel to sit on a fast till the chief minister intervened personally .
But the use of force by the cops to clear off the venue and the brief detention of Patel triggered violence, which is now construed as part of a larger design to escalate tension in a state which is already on the boil.
The chief minister has ordered an enquiry into the reasons leading to such an action by the police.
Patel's antecedents have also added to the speculation. While images of him carrying a gun were already doing the rounds, another picture of him with a gun tied to his waist and posing with Vishwa Hindu Parishad's international secretary Pravin Togadia has now come to light. His pictures with another Patidar leader Gordhan Zadaphiya too are being floated.
While Patel had earlier admitted that he was in touch with Patidar leaders as a member of Sardar Patel Group in Viramgam, his reference to the wider Patidar community and reaching out to Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar as “one of us“ had certainly raised eyebrows. BJP leader Gordhan Zadafiya has been meeting the Kurmi Kshatriya groups for quite some time and attending various programmes across UP , Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in his capacity as president of Akhil Bharatiya Sardar Patel Mahasabha.