More worry for Congress in Gujarat as Ahmed Patel’s son says he is keeping options open
India

More worry for Congress in Gujarat as Ahmed Patel’s son says he is keeping options open

The Patels are a powerful family in Gujarat and the state goes to polls later this year.

   

File photo of Ahmed Patel | Facebook

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s son Faisal implied Tuesday that he might not make his electoral debut with the Congress after all.

In a cryptic tweet Tuesday, Faisal, 41, said: “Tired of waiting around. No encouragement from the top brass. Keeping my options open.”

The Patels are a powerful family in Gujarat and the state goes to polls later this year.

Since Faisal harbours ambitions of getting an Assembly ticket in Gujarat, his tweet is being interpreted as his disappointment with the Congress top brass for keeping him hanging around.

Last year, Faisal had said his father’s social work in Gujarat was his first priority. The Patels run two hospitals and a school in Bharuch.

“I will enter electoral politics if the (Congress) party high command asks,” news agency PTI quoted him as saying last February.

“If the high command wishes, I will also fight elections. Preferably from Bharuch, because that is my area,” Patel had said when asked if he would contest the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls.

His father Ahmed Patel, a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi for decades, died of Covid complications in November 2020.

Faisal Patel’s meeting with AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in April last year had also created quite the flutter.


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