Veteran Congress Leader and Party Trouble-Shooter Ahmed Patel Passes Away at 71, Leaders Across Party Lines Condoles

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 25: The veteran Congress leader and the party’s one of the best known trouble-shooters, Ahmed Patel, who was considered almost the uncrowned king of the Congress in Gujarat but without making any ostensible show, died in early hours of Wednesday due to multiple organ failures after having tested positive for Covid-19 last month. He was 71.

His son Faisal Patel in a twitter message said “after testing positive for Covid-19 about a month back, his health worsened further due to multiple organ failures. He died around 3.30 A.M. on Wednesday.”

Besides all the senior leaders of the Congress across the country, President Ram Nath Kovind, the prime minister Narendra Modi and host of non-Congress leaders have also condoled the death of Ahmed Patel, the go-to man in emergency situations and a master strategist for the Congress for decades.

Born on August 21, 1949, at Piraman village near Bharuch in Gujarat, the home state of Modi and the union home minister Amit Shah, Patel represented the state eight times in Parliament – three times as a Lok Sabha member from Bharuch and five times as a Rajya Sabha member.

Paying tributes to the departed Congress leader, the president Ram Nath Kovind said, “Distressed to know that veteran Congress leader Ahmed Patel is no more. An astute Parliamentarian, Shri Patel combined the skills of a strategist and the charm of a mass leader. His amiability won him friends across party lines. My condolences to his family and friends,”

“Saddened by the demise of Ahmed Patel Ji. He spent years in public life, serving society. Known for his sharp mind, his role in strengthening the Congress Party would always be remembered. Spoke to his son Faisal and expressed condolences. May Ahmed Bhai’s soul rest in peace,” prime minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

The Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi said, “In Sh. Ahmed Patel, I have lost a colleague, whose entire life was dedicated to the Congress Party. His faithfulness and dedication, his commitment to his duty, his always being there to help, his generosity were rare qualities that distinguished him from others. I have lost an irreplaceable comrade, a faithful colleague and a friend. I mourn his passing and I feel deeply for his bereaved family to whom I offer my sincere feelings of empathy and support,” she said.

Rahul said he was a tremendous asset for the party. “It is a sad day. Shri Ahmed Patel was a pillar of the Congress party. He lived and breathed Congress and stood with the party through its most difficult times. He was a tremendous asset,” he said.

A backroom operator, Patel shunned coming on the foreground or accept any lucrative post in the government when the Congress was ruling at the centre or his home state. A Gandhi family loyalist, Patel was one of the most powerful leaders in the Congress and is said to have repeatedly turned down the offers to join the central government when the party was in power.

Being closest to the top Congress leaders since 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister and Patel was appointed his parliamentary secretary, he became the most powerful leader in the Congress in Gujarat taking every key decisions for the party in his home state. Having served as political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi from 2001 to 2017 when she handed over the reins of the organisation to her son Rahul Gandhi, Patel remained a vital link between the party high command and leaders and workers, and also between the party and the government besides the allies.

Patel played an important role during the 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government but always maintained a low profile. A close friend of the media, he often provided vital information to the journalists but without ever causing any damage to the party. It is believed that it was due to his crisis management skills that the Congress-led government managed to win the trust vote in 2008 after the Left parties had withdrawn their support to the UPA over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

In August 2018, the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi appointed Patel as the party treasurer, a post he had held from October 1996 to July 2000.

The appointment came at a time when the Congress was grappling with its worst financial crisis. Several Congress leaders had admitted to “severe funds crunch” during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The crisis, blamed on corporate houses moving away from the Congress, continued through subsequent elections.

Patel had obviously been brought back as the treasurer to use his contacts with the industrialists to mobilise the resources for the party to fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

A member of the powerful Congress Working Committee (CWC) since April 1992, Patel also served as the Gujarat Congress president from January 1986 to October 1988, he was party national general secretary twice from September 1985 to January 1986 and then from May 1992 to October 1996.

Patel won his fifth term from Gujarat in 2017 after a nail-biting finish in the bitterly fought Rajya Sabha elections, which had become a prestige battle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Patel was known for settling internal dissensions in the party but his death came at a time when the Congress is battling crisis over the leadership issue. A group of 23 leaders wrote to the Congress president last month seeking complete overhaul of the party and a full-time leadership to stem the steady decline of the 135-year-old organisation. They renewed their call after the drubbing in Bihar assembly elections and by-polls in several states.

Patel was neither a flamboyant nor a charismatic leader. But he was the master strategist operating from behind the scenes, undisputedly the most influential and powerful person in the Congress after the Gandhis for decades. But he always exercised power with caution and that was one rare quality which separated him from other wielders of such authority, in Congress or elsewhere.

Many used to describe Patel, who shunned limelight, as Gandhi’s gatekeeper. The master politician was Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary and trusted lieutenant for over two decades. He steered her political career from the time she took over as Congress president in 1998, was the key link between the party and the Government when the UPA was in power for a decade and one of the key decision makers in the organisation.

“Loyalty” was one word which the Congressmen often use to describe the deceased leader. Despite all the troubles and tribulations the Congress faced in the recent years within and outside the party, Patel remained fiercely loyal to Sonia Gandhi who said she lost “a faithful colleague and friend.” Congress leaders said Patel’s passing was a “true loss” for the party, especially the troubled times that it is in.

If Sonia had succeeded in building bridges with other parties, the reason was Patel. He enjoyed good rapport with leaders across party lines. He could reach almost every top leader over a simple phone call.

Patel in many ways was also the link between the past and the present, the bridge between the old and the young in the party. At a time when the party is facing turmoil within, his passing – many believe, would snap that link. And Rahul knows it well. “He lived and breathed Congress and stood with the party through its most difficult times,” he remembered.