Earlier on Monday, the Congress leader had moved to the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court order rejecting his plea to stay his conviction in the 2015 Vispur rioting case.
The Gujarat high court order is coming in the way of his contesting the Lok Sabha election as under the Representation of the People Act and a related Supreme Court ruling, a convict facing a jail term of two years or more cannot stand for election unless the conviction is stayed. Patel had started preparations to contest from Jamnagar on a Congress ticket after joining the party on March 12 and the last date for filing of nominations is April 4.
Polling for 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be held on April 23.
In July 2018, the sessions court at Visnagar sentenced Patel to two years' imprisonment for rioting and arson in Visnagar town during the 2015 Patidar quota stir. The high court granted him bail and suspended his sentence in August 2018, but his conviction was not stayed.
In the Gujarat high court, the state government had submitted that there were 17 FIRs including two sedition complaints against Patel who is known for making inflammatory speeches. The high court had declined the contention of Patel's lawyers that if the conviction was not stayed, it will cause "irreparable damage" as he intended to contest the Lok Sabha election.
In the order, the high court noted that a conviction can be stayed only in rare and exceptional cases, and the case did not fall into that category.