Ahmed Patel's victory shows Congress-Mukt Bharat is still a far cry

NEW DELHI: The victory of Ahmed Patel, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political secretary and close aide, in the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat holds a symbolic importance—it signals that the dream of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) of a Congress-Mukt Bharat is still not a reality.

The veteran Congress leader won with 44 votes to clinch a fifth term.

Patel's defeat would have been seen as a blow to Sonia Gandhi herself. It would have been a strong message to the Congress ranks that they were riding in a sinking boat.

That's why the election became a highly fluctuating numbers game that played out for nearly two weeks which featured the Congress taking away its MLA's to Banagalore so that the BJP could not poach them.

The contest turned into a prestige issue for BJP president Amit Shah, who made an all-out effort not just to wean away JD(U) and NCP from the Congress but also made several of its MLAs resign from the party.

This is not just my victory. It is a defeat of the most blatant use of money power,muscle power and abuse of state machinery

— Ahmed Patel (@ahmedpatel) August 8, 2017

Patel has defeated Balwantsinh Rajput, who had left the Congress to join BJP right before the Rajya Sabha election. It will be a message to others too who had left Congress similarly.

Many in the New Delhi’s political circles perceived the contest as an ‘Amit Shah Vs Ahmed Patel’ fight, as they claim both have been locked in not-so-secret political and personal fights for quite some time.

BJP’s all-out bid to trip Patel was meant to set the atmospherics for the December assembly polls in Gujarat with the BJP facing resentment of the Patel community.

But Patel's victory will boost the morale of the Congress ranks in Gujarat. The failure of BJP's desperate attempts to poach Congress MLAs will send a message to voters that this might not be the best way to a Congress-Mukt Bharat.