Addressing a press conference in Gandhinagar late on Friday night, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, demanded that Congress leader Ahmed Patel should resign from the seat in the Rajya Sabha.
Rupani accused Patel to have connections with a suspected Islamic State member Kasim Steamerwala, 31 who was arrested last Wednesday by the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Gujarat Police. He said that the arrested Kasim used to work in a hospital managed by Ahmed Patel. The Chief Minister questioned that how Kasim came to be employed by the Sardar Patel Hospital in the town of Ankleshwar in Bharuch district.
Addressing the conference Rupani informed that Kasim along with Ubed Mirza, arrested by the Gujarat police were planning to attack Hindu shrines and a synagogue. Giving reasons to support Patel’s connection with Kasim, Rupani said that “Patel was earlier a trustee of the hospital, from which he [Kasim Steamerwala] resigned in 2014. However, he continued to run the show at the hospital where President Pranab Mukherjee was invited to inaugurate the premises in 2016.”
Vijay Rupani said that Ahmed Patel and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi should clear the matter. Union minister Prakash Javadekar also demanded an explanation from the Congress as to how a terrorist was working in the hospital for so long, managed by Patel?
Responding to the remarks made by Vijay Rupani, Ahmed Patel said that these allegations made by BJP were baseless and instead demanded a strict and speedy action against the arrested terrorists. He also requested that the matter such as dealing with the terrorists and national security should not be dealt in a political outlook and not to divide the people of Gujarat while fighting terrorism.
“We request that matters of national security not be politicised keeping elections in mind,” he tweeted.
My party and I appreciate the ATS’s effort to nab the two terrorists. I demand strict and speedy action against them. (1/3)
— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) October 27, 2017
The allegations put forward by BJP are completely baseless. (2/3)
— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) October 27, 2017
We request that matters of national security not be politicised keeping elections in mind (3/3)
— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) October 27, 2017
Let’s not divide peace loving Gujaratis while fighting terrorism
— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) October 27, 2017
Ahmed Patel had won the Gujarat Rajya Sabha seat after the much dramatic turn of events. Following the footsteps of Shakersinh Vaghela, 6 more Congress MLAs had quit Congress and three out of them also joined BJP. One of the MLA to join BJP is Balwant Singh Rajput who immediately was fielded against Patel for the Rajya Sabha polls. After the magical number required to win going up and down several times, the turning point which marked the victory for Patel was when, Congress raised objections against two MLAs Raghavji Patel and Bholabhai Gohil alleging that they have violated the secrecy of voting by showing their votes to BJP candidates and the objection soon reached the doorsteps of the Election Commission in Delhi. However, after much-heated discussion put forward by both the parties, the election commission declared these two votes invalid and asked them to be separated before counting the votes.
BJP however, nailed the other two setas with Amit Shah, but it sure did not like the defeat against Ahmed Patel. Now as the elections in Gujarat is nearing and just a few days back a Patidar conveyer revealing that BJP offered him 1 crore to join the party, does the allegation of Patel having connection with Kasim hold any ground or is a political move to get back the Rajya Sabha seat by demanding his resignation and making it even with Congress.