Who is Hardik Patel aka Patidar Hriday Samrat?

22-year old Hardik Patel, founder of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, has captured the imagination of the Patel community in a way that has become a cause of worry for the Anandiben Patel government.

Here's all you need to know about Hardik Patel and how he rose to prominence.

• Since the beginning, Hardik Patel has been actively fighting for the rights of Patels. Till four years ago he headed the Sardar Patel Sevadal organisation. He formed the group in 2010 as a Patidar social group in Mehsana in 2004.

• He is the son of a BJP worker Bharatbhai Patel.

• A commerce student, Hardik graduated from Sahajanand College in Ahmedabad three years ago and ran a business of supplying water to commercial establishments.

• He left the business to form Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, an offshoot of the Sardar Patel Sevadal this July.

• Since then Hardik has successfully catapulted into a young Patel hero fighting for the cause of the community that is considered politically and economically strong.

• He has been holding massive rallies in small towns and large cities for the past two months while claiming that the Patel community can "make and break governments in Gujarat." Now he is known as Patidar Hriday Samrat.

• Recently, his organisation released a video of him that shows him wielding a gun. He is being projected as a "loh purush(iron man)" like Sardar Bhai Patel.

• An energetic speaker, he has been a constant threat for the Anandiben Patel government that has seven Patel ministers in its cabinet. An Indian Express article quotes him as saying, ""First we follow the path shown by Gandhiji and Sardar Patel but, if required, we can become Bhagat Singh too."

• He addressed his largest gathering earlier this month in Surat where about 5 lakh Patels rallied behind him and his demand for OBC quota for Patels.

• Today he is addressing another rally in Ahmedabad. He claims he would mobalise a crowd of 40 lakh people. During his 9 August rally he had declared: "Around 40 lakh Patidars will participate in the rally. Even if the government refuses permission, we will organize the rally"