Faisal Patel, son of late Congress stalwart Ahmed Patel, has announced he will stop working for the grand old party, claiming that he tried to follow in his father's footsteps but was denied at every step. Ahmed Patel, who had served as a Rajya Sabha MP, All Indian Congress Committee treasurer and former party president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, died in November 2020. Faisal had aspired to contest from the Bharuch seat in Gujarat in last year's Lok Sabha elections but the Congress did not nominate him.
Following a defeat in the Bihar elections, opposition parties in India are calling for introspection and course correction, with some criticizing the concentration of power within their ranks.
Mumtaz Patel said that she will continue to work to make the party stronger along with the party cadre in Bharuch.
'Temperamentally, they are quite alike.' 'Ahmed Patel avoided the limelight and was not a power seeker.' 'The Gandhis too are not power wielders, but trustees of power.'
The Congress' rebuttal came after the Gujarat police on Friday opposed activist Teesta Setalvad's bail application.
Mumtaz Patel, however, did not shy away from declaring she will definitely enter active politics if she gets a chance to do "good work".
While Ahmed Patel staved off the challenge to his Rajya Sabha membership, it leaves the scene wide open for the Gujarat assembly election this winter.
Ahmed Patel, who was undergoing treatment at a Gurugram hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, breathed his last after multi-organ failure in the wee hours of Wednesday, his son Faisal confirmed.
As per Ahmed Patel's wishes, he was buried next to the graves of his parents.
'His condition is stable and he continues to be under medical observation...We request you to pray for his speedy recovery'
Shiv Sena-UBT MP Sanjay Raut claimed that former Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena head Eknath Shinde wanted to join the Congress in the past. Raut's claim comes after former Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole offered Shinde and Ajit Pawar the "rotational post of the chief minister" if they switched to the opposition alliance. Raut said that "nothing is impossible in politics" and that Shinde and Ajit Pawar are carrying the flags of the BJP.
Additional sessions judge DD Thakkar took the SIT's reply on record and posted the hearing on the bail application on Monday.
Patel, 71, the quintessential backroom strategist for the Congress, died at a Gurugram hospital in the early hours of Wednesday due to multiple organ failure more than a month after he tested positive for COVID-19.
The chargesheet said according to the 'budget sheet, 30 million were paid to Air Force officers.
In her condolence message for Patel, who served as her political secretary for years and was the All India Congress Committee treasurer, party chief Sonia Gandhi said, 'In Shri Ahmed Patel, I have lost a colleague, whose entire life was dedicated to the Congress Party.'
Sources claim Rahul Gandhi has been feeling uneasy about the alleged links between some corporate houses and some ministers.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that some Congress leaders pressured individuals to donate funds to the Young Indian and Associated Journals Limited (AJL) on instructions from senior party functionaries. The ED's chargesheet in the National Herald case claims that these individuals made payments to the company "under the influence" from senior leaders who promised them "certain favours" in party politics. The chargesheet, filed on April 9 before a local court, names Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as accused, along with five others, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency alleges that these donations were not made voluntarily but in expectation of political benefits. The ED also found that YI and AJL received funds from various entities through "quid pro quo" arrangements, where individuals were asked to make payments for advertisements in the National Herald in exchange for past favours from Congress leaders.
Patel (71), the top strategist and troubleshooter of the Congress party, died in a Gurugram hospital in the early hours of Wednesday following complications related to COVID-19.
'A thief sees a thief in everyone,' he said in an apparent swipe at the prime minister.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was the "driving force" behind the "conspiracy" to implicate then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots case in the state.
Patel's closeness to the Gandhi family was undeniable. But unlike others, he resisted the temptation to use it to leverage personal business, says Aditi Phadnis.
Rahul is going about the restructuring of the Congress leadership in a gradual, deliberate fashion: No sudden jerks, no abrupt moves. So while seniors like Janardan Dwivedi were edged out, Ahmed Patel has been retained.
Patel, 71, who was critical for a few days, was admitted to the Medanta hospital in Gurugram on November 15 after he developed complications. His son Faisal said he died at 3.30 am.
Congress on Monday accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of dragging the name of Ahmed Patel into the campaign for the Gujarat assembly polls because he "wanted to play the communal card".
Trashing the posters, Patel alleged that such acts show the 'utter desperation' of the BJP as it fears defeat.
He was elected as a local body councillor in 1976 in Bharuch Municipal body of Gujarat at the age of 25 years and became the political secretary of Sonia Gandhi and remained a bridge during UPA-I tenure between the party and the government.
Ahmed Patel, the most powerful man in the Congress party after the Gandhis, speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a rare and exclusive interview.
Gujarat Assembly has issued notification for elections to three seats of Rajya Sabha, to be held on July 22. Elections were necessitated as terms of Patel and BJP MPs Surendra Patel and Pravin Nayak would end in August.
Patel, who died on Wednesday at a Gurugram hospital where he was admitted with COVID-19, could have been the tell-all leader offering insights and information with his inside view of the workings of the Congress and the political world. But he would have none of it.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that this is a bigger bank scam in volume than that of the Punjab National Bank fraud by fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, as it involves fraud to the tune of about Rs 16,000 crore.
The 71-year-old remained Sonia Gandhi's most trusted lieutenant for most of her tenure as the longest serving Congress president, standing by her side through sun and shade.
The Rajya Sabha election was personal so it had to be won and Amit Shah needed to be sent a message.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, while reacting to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's comments about him, said that he was never a candidate for the top post in the state.
"One was 'AP' and the other was 'Fam'. 'AP' stands for Ahmed Patel and 'Fam' stands for family. Have you heard of Ahmed Patel? Which family is he close to?" Modi asked the crowd at a rally in Dehradun.
'They may malign the Congress, but I don't think the BJP will ever form the government on its own.' Ahmed Patel, the most powerful man in the Congress party after the Gandhis, speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a rare and exclusive interview.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused Ahmed Patel of having "deep relations" with a Gujarat hospital where an alleged Islamic State operative worked before his arrest, even as the Congress defended its senior leader, dubbing the demand for his resignation from the Rajya Sabha as "outrageous".
Last time, the dates for Lok Sabha polls were announced in the first week of March.
He is starting to realise that an era is ending. And he is not ready to have a five-decade career besmirched by two alphabets -- AP -- that have cropped up in the AgustaWestland papers, says Aditi Phadnis.
The Congress leader is one of the most powerful functionaries in the party, having the reputation of being a trouble-shooter and strategist.
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