Faisal Patel, son of late senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, lauded the Narendra Modi government on Tuesday and said the country is “in safe hands”. Patel, however, insisted that he has no rift with the Congress party. He further clarified that he remains a Congress member but is on a “sabbatical from public life”. Earlier in March, he publicly announced that he had decided to “stop working” for the party. While making the announcement back then, Patel had alleged that he had been “denied” opportunities to follow in his late father’s footsteps.
Ahmed Patel was one of the most influential figures in the Congress, was a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat’s Bharuch and served nearly three decades in the Rajya Sabha. A master strategist, he was Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor and the party’s go-to crisis manager until his death from Covid in 2020.
Cracks in the party?
Tensions reportedly surfaced earlier last year when, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress did not field a candidate in Bharuch as part of a seat-sharing arrangement with the Aam Aadmi Party. Both Faisal and his sister Mumtaz expressed disappointment and the seat was eventually won by the BJP.
Now, Faisal has denied any cracks or hard feelings with the party. “I am not upset with the Congress at all. The whole party is my family, and I have good relations with senior leaders. I have not left Congress, I have just taken a sabbatical,” he said.
Praising Modi government and Rahul Gandhi
Faisal praised the central government’s handling of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. “It can’t be better than who’s running the show. The armed forces have done a great job, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed great leadership and brought us out of a huge crisis. It’s a big deal. I am proud of our armed forces,” he said. He also commended External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Modi’s practice of elevating bureaucrats to ministerial positions, calling it “a very good thing”.
Interestingly, Faisal also had words of appreciation for Congress’s Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. He described him as a “hardworking leader”. He further named Shashi Tharoor, DK Shivakumar, Revanth Reddy, Deependra Hooda and Sachin Pilot as “capable leaders” in the party.
However, in a veiled criticism of the Congress high command, he remarked that “seniors running the party are not given the right piece of advice” and that “their advisors are not doing a good job”.