Gujarat RS poll: Ten things to know about Congress' Ahmed Patel

Ahmed Patel, is considered the most powerful person in the Congress party after the mother-son duo. He has stood by the party through its thick and thin and is by far the most trusted person of Sonia Gandhi.

Image Ahmed Patel: PTI/File

New Delhi: Voting for the high-stake Gujarat Rajya Sabha election started on Tuesday. Four candidates are contesting for three seats. In this 3 vs 1 battle, BJP has pitched three candidates while congress has one. While BJP has got biggies like Amit Shah and Smriti Irani and recent defector from Congress Balwantsinh Rajput, the grand old party Congress has all of its hopes pinned to Ahmed Patel. Ahmed Patel has emerged the big name hitting the bottomline of discussions all around. Here are seven things to know about him:

• Patel is the current Congress MP of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and as of now he is the only Muslim parliamentarian from the state.
• He has represented Gujarat seven times in the Parliament, consecutively thrice in Lok Sabha (1977 – 1989) and four times consecutively in Rajya Sabha (since 1993).
• In 1985, he was the Parliamentary secretary to the then PM Rajiv Gandhi.
• He successfully erected the long stalled Jawahar Bhavan in record one year, just in time for Nehru’s birth centenary celebrations using funds from Congress lawmakers and partly crowd funded through one day cricket matches.
• He has been the political secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi since 2001 and is considered Sonia Gandhi's most trusted adviser. It is said that Patel used to be the second most powerful person of the party. Well, he of-course slipped to being the third most powerful person after Rahul Gandhi became the vice-president of the party.
• Ahmed Patel who is considered to be the chief strategist for party's success in the 2004 and 2009 general elections, preferred to keep out of government activities.
• A science graduate Ahmed, used to be an agriculturist by profession before he joined politics.
• It was alleged in July 2008 that Ahmed Patel was involved in the scam of cash-for-votes when the trust vote for the UPA government was undertaken. He was given a clean chit in the investigation undertaken by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha as there was no evidence to support the allegations.
• Ahmed who is well-known for being a philanthropist, keeps a low profile and doesn't generally interact with the media.
• He is lovingly called "Babu bhai"