New Delhi: Tarun Gajjar, the one who slapped Congress leader Hardik Patel on Friday in a rally in Surendranagar in Gujarat has claimed that he wanted to teach Patel a lesson for causing hardship to people during the Patidar agitation.

Soon after slapping Hardik Patel, he was beaten black and blue by the Congress leaders’ supporters and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment.

While speaking to media during his treatment, the attacker had said that he and his family faced many hardships during the Hardik Patel led Patidar reservation agitation.

He said, "My wife was pregnant when Patidar agitation happened. I had faced problems then, I had decided then, I'll hit this man. I have to teach him a lesson anyhow".

"Then again during his rally in Ahmedabad when I had gone to get medicine for my child, everything was shut down. He shuts down the roads, he shuts down Gujarat whenever he wants to, What is he? Gujarat's Hitler?" the attacker was quoted. 

Hardik Patel joined the Congress, in the presence of Rahul Gandhi, in March, having campaigned for the party during the 2017 state elections. He was keen on contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections from the Jamnagar constituency in Gujarat but was unable to do so because of a conviction in a 2015 rioting case.