In the wee hours of Wednesday, the Congress party lost one of its most senior, loyal and foundational leaders. Ahmed Patel, who had tested positive for Covid-19, succumbed to disease-related complications along with multi-organ failure on Wednesday, leaving a void in the Congress which far from ever being filled, will perhaps ensure the ruin of the Grand Old Party. The 71-year-old leader’s demise could not have come at a worse time for the Congress party. At a time when the Gandhis are being reminded on a daily basis by senior most dissenters of the party to get their act straight, the absence of Ahmed Patel will piercingly be felt by the first family of the Congress.
Ahmed Patel was the Congress’ trouble-shooter, firefighter, peacemaker, and much more all wrapped in one. He was Sonia Gandhi’s closest confidante. The value which the Gandhis attached with Patel is reflected from their remembrances of the man. While Rahul Gandhi called the late Congress veteran a pillar of the party, Sonia Gandhi addressed him as an “irreplaceable comrade” and praised his faithfulness to the family/party. This in itself is quite telling of the vacuum which has been left in the Congress with Patel’s passing away.
Ahmed Patel was the man who reposed all his loyalty in the Gandhis. As such, he kept them insulated from most of the storms which rocked the party. During the UPA rule, when corruption was at its peak, Ahmed Patel gave his all to ensuring that not a single harsh gust of wind would rough up the leaves of 10 Janpath, even if the continuous storms continued to batter the Congress party day in and day out. On more occasions that one can recount, Ahmed Patel was deputed to all states where the Congress had even the slightest of chances of forming the government. With the Shiv Sena and NCP too, Patel’s role in stitching the alliance which is today ruling Maharashtra was paramount.
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When close to 23 senior Congress leaders shot off a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi calling for constructive change in the organisation, Ahmed Patel was the one who single-handedly ensured that the Grand Old Party did not implode, as that pretty much would have been the case without his intervention. Today, in similar circumstances, there is no Patel to save the Congress from such implosions. In the aftermath of the embarrassing poll performance of the Congress in Bihar, an eerily similar anti-Gandhi wave has gripped the party in Delhi. With Ahmed Patel no longer around to save the Gandhis, there is no stopping the dissenting leaders from going all-out in their attack against the family, and ensuring that the leadership of the party is de-centralised from the clutches of the first family.
Ahmed Patel was perhaps one of the last Congress leaders to have unquestionable loyalty for the Gandhis. The remaining party stalwarts are all of the opinion that party must trump family, and not the other way round. The Gandhis no longer have the option of ducking such a tsunami of dissent by speed-dialling Ahmed Patel, and must deal with the massive rebellion at hand themselves. It is an open secret that Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel were hardly on the same page, owing to Rahul’s insistence of breaking the ‘system’ within the party. This would inevitably require Patel to take the back seat, which he did. However, before the Lok Sabha polls last year, the mother-son duo realised that even attempting to take on the Modi tsunami would require the presence of Patel in Delhi, which is why he was appointed the party treasurer. Called back on an honorary post, Patel soon resumed his real job – firefighting for the Gandhis and solving the party’s many crises.
Embroiled in a crisis again, there is nobody out there to save the Gandhis this time. Patel’s demise has come as a heavy blow to the family. The dissenters are emboldened; the family is weak. The times are definitely not good for the Gandhi family.
