Congress stalwart late Ahmed Patel’s son Faisal has praised the Narendra Modi government and said the “country is in safe hands”, but clarified that he is not upset with the Congress and has taken a break from public life. This comes months after the 44-year-old announced that he had decided to “stop working” for the Congress and that he was “denied” the chance to follow in his father’s footsteps.
The late Ahmed Patel was a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat’s Bharuch and a Rajya Sabha member for nearly three decades. Considered the top strategist in the Grand Old Party, he was former UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor and Congress’s key crisis manager. Mr Patel died of Covid in 2020.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Congress did not field a candidate in Bharuch following a poll understanding with the Aam Aadmi Party. This disappointed Mr Patel’s son, Faisal and daughter, Mumtaz. Eventually, AAP lost the election to the BJP, which has been winning Bharuch since 1989.
Earlier this year, Faisal Patel posted on X that he had decided to stop working for Congress. “My late father, Ahmed Patel, gave his entire life working for the country, party & the Gandhi family. I tried following his footsteps but was denied every step of the way. I will continue to work for mankind in any way possible. The Congress party will remain my family as it has always been,” he wrote.
Now, he has said he is “not upset with the Congress at all”. “The whole party is my family, and I have good relations with the senior leaders of the party. I am still in the Congress party. I have not left Congress, I have just taken a sabbatical from public life. The people of Gujarat and the local leaders have wonderful things to say about me,” he said.
He then praised the Narendra Modi government. Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, he said, “It can’t be better than who’s running the show. The armed forces have done a great job, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed great leadership and brought us out of a huge crisis. It’s a big deal. I am proud of our armed forces. I have a lot of respect for (External Affairs Minister S) Jaishankar. How Modiji picks up bureaucrats, makes them leaders, and puts them in ministerial roles is a very good thing.”
Faisal Patel praised the Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi as a “hardworking leader”. “There are some very bright and intelligent leaders in the Congress, like Shashi Tharoor, DK Shivakumar, Revanth Reddy, Deependra Hooda, and Sachin Pilot. They are very capable leaders. There are problems internally, and I believe the seniors running the party are not given the right piece of advice. Their advisors are not doing a good job,” he said, in a veiled attack at a section of top Congress leaders.
