Many high-profile and senior leaders of the Congress party are already under the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) radar and one more senior Congress leader may soon find himself under the scrutiny of the ED. The ED, on Friday, told a Delhi court that it has evidence of alleged bribe of Rs 25 lakh delivered at the residence of senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha Member, Ahmed Patel.
Delhi's Patiala House Court has sent a person named Ranjit Malik to one-day custody on allegations that he sent Rs 25 lakh Congress leader Ahmed Patel's residence in Delhi in connection with a bank loan fraud of over Rs 5,000 cr.
— ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018
The ED maintained that they had recorded the statement of a man called Rakesh Chandra who said that he worked as a cash courier for Ranjit Malik. Rakesh Chandra also spoke about delivering 25 lakh cash to 23, Mother Teresa Crescent Road. It is the official residence of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel.
ED officials also told the court that along with witness statement they also have “telephonic chats and financial transactions” as proof to back up the charges in the case.
If the charges against Ahmed Patel are proved then the Congress party would be in a serious trouble considering the power and influence of Ahmed Patel both inside and outside of the Congress party. Ahmed Patel is a member of Congress high command. In the political circles, it is strongly believed that Ahmed Patel is the right hand of Sonia Gandhi. He is often referred to as Sonia Gandhi’s “crisis manager”. In 1998, he played a pivotal role in preparing Sonia Gandhi to take charge of party affairs and in removing Sitaram Kesri to make her the Congress party president. Some people also say that Ahmed Patel is the man who ran the Congress party and the UPA government from 2004-14. He had more influence in the Congress party than the then prime minister.
He is one of the most powerful knights of the Congress party. Ahmed Patel has been in the Rajya Sabha for more than 25 years. He is with the party since Rajiv Gandhi’s time. Patel was the parliamentary secretary to Rajiv Gandhi from January to September 1985. He has been elected from Gujarat seven times in the Parliament of India, three times in the lower house or Lok Sabha (1977–1989) and four times in the Upper House or Rajya Sabha (since 1993). His image helps Congress party to attract Muslim votes of Gujarat in its favor.
It is widely believed that he is not at all in the good books of two big leaders from Gujarat currently, first one is Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and the other one is BJP President and Rajya Sabha member Amit Shah. It is said that Ahmed Patel played a pivotal role in getting Amit Shah imprisoned in 2010 when Amit Shah was the home minister of Gujarat and a petty criminal died in police custody. It is also said that media grilled the incumbent PM and former Gujrat CM Narendra Modi on the issue of Godhra riots on the directions of Ahmed Patel. Ahmed Patel is the one who used to manage everything for the Congress from media narrative to Home ministry between 2004 and 2014.
So far, he has maintained a low-profile image. The nation came to know about him only when he struggled a lot to win the Rajya Sabha seat in 2017. It shows the degraded condition of the Congress party that such a powerful leader had to struggle so much for one Rajya Sabha seat.