JOIN USA day after Chirag Patel - one of the founder-members and one-time close confidante of Hardik Patel - joined the BJP, three other key members of the Patidaar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) joined the party on Saturday.
Ketan Patel, Amrish Patel and Shweta Patel were welcomed into the party by Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya. The three accused Hardik of making money in the name of quota stir.
There has been a steady trickle of young PAAS members into the saffron party, which began last month with Varun Patel and Reshma Patel - prominent faces of Patel quota stir in the state and close aides of Hardik.
Ketan, who, like Hardik and Chirag, has been facing sedition charges for his role in the quota stir, said that Hardik had become a sex maniac and that reservation was no longer on his agenda. "Even on the issue of CDs, though Hardik is talking of right to privacy, he has not denied his actions," he said.
He also alleged that Dinesh Bhambaniya, another associate of Hardik, was responsible for the violence on GMDC ground on August 26, 2015, which spiralled into state-wide turbulence that resulted in the death of 14 people. "It was Dinesh who phoned Patel activists from the stage and asked them to spread violence, even burn down a police station," Ketan charged.
Shweta Patel said she was switching to BJP as the quota stir had become a fundraiser.