Hours after the seat-sharing deal between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, Gujarat, and other states, was announced, Mumtaz Patel, daughter of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel, took to microblogging platform X seeking an apology.
“Deeply apologize to Our district cadre for not being able to secure the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in alliance. I share your disappointment, Patel wrote expressing her disappointment over Bharuch going to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party in the deal.
“I share your disappointment. Together, we will regroup to make Congress. We won’t let Ahmed Patel’s 45 years of Legacy go in vain,” she said.
Apart from a seat-sharing formula on seven seats of Delhi, the two parties have agreed that the AAP will contest two seats – Bharuch and Bhavnagar – in Gujarat. As thing stand, AAP candidate Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch may find it tough to get absolute support from the Congress cadre in Bharuch.
Mumtaz said that she has heard Rahul Gandhi had also objected to the Bharuch, a traditional Congress seat, being given to AAP. “We are hopeful that this seat will remain with Congress. They (AAP) want an alliance because they want the support of Congress,” she told news agency ANI.
Her brother Faisal Patel also shared the disappointment.
“…My party workers and I are not happy and we wanted this decision to not be taken but if the high command wants, we will follow it – both party workers and I…” Faisal told ANI.
The Patels have been making a case for the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat as part of Congress’s seat-sharing deal with AAP.
Ahmed Patel, considered Sonia Gandhi’s most powerful aide until his death in 2020, had won Bharuch in 1980 and 1984. Since 1989, however, the seat has been with the BJP. Mansukhbhai Vasava of the BJP currently represents the seat.
Patel, and his family, draw considerable influence in the Bharuch region of Gujarat, even after his death. For months, speculation was rife that Congress might field either Mumtaz or her brother Faisal from Bharuch to end BJP’s dominance and carry forward their father’s legacy. Some reports suggested that Rahul Gandhi had apparently promised Faisal that someone from the family would contest from Bharuch.
“I am going to Congress and I will speak with the high command once again. There is a lot of time to file nominations as well as for elections… Gandhi’s family is my family too…I am of the firm belief that they will understand the emotions of the Patel family attached to this seat…” Faisal said.
Some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, for obvious reasons, also jumped into the discussion. The party’s IT cell in charge Amit Malviya, said the Congress wanted to erase Ahmed Patel’s legacy and humiliate his family.
“Everyone knows of the differences between late Ahmed Patel and Rahul Gandhi. Giving away Bharuch to AAP is Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to erase his legacy and humiliate the family,” he said in a post on X.
Bharuch candidate Chaitar Vasava claimed that he will win the election and that the victory will be a tribute to Ahmed Patel.
“The faith that AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Gujarat Congress President have put in me, I will keep that faith alive. In the coming days, we will keep all Congress leaders together and contest the elections. We will win the elections and pay tribute to late Ahmed Patel,” Vasava told news agency ANI.
The seat-sharing deal reinforces the Congress-AAP partnership forged through the INDIA grouping — an amalgamation of leading opposition parties — that will fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The two parties, that are rivals in Delhi and Punjab state elections, have not reached at any agreement for Lok Sabha polls in Punjab.
The inaugural meeting of the Opposition coalition INDIA was held in Patna on June 23. Eight months since, the alliance has faced many setbacks. The biggest, of course, is from Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, who has now switched his party Janata Dal’s (United) allegiance to the NDA.
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