New Delhi, November 25, 2020: Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel passed away early morning today at a hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for Coronavirus disease (COVID19) for over a month.
Ahmed Patel’s son Faisal Patel tweeted that his father Ahmed Patel has died at 3.30 am this morning. According to the information, Ahmed Patel was undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram. He died in this hospital.
His son Faisal Patel gave this information by tweeting. “With profound grief & sorrow, I regret to announce the sad & untimely demise of my father, Mr. Ahmed Patel at 25/11/2020, 03:30 AM. After testing positive for COVID-19 around a month back, his health worsened further due to multiple organ failures. May Allah grant him Jannatul firdaus, inshallah. I request all well wishers to adhere to COVID-19 law & order regulations by avoiding any mass gatherings and to also maintain social distancing norms at all times. Regards, Faisal Patel Mumtaz Patel Siddiqui”
Ahmed Patel was infected with Corona on 1 October. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Medanta Hospital in Gurugram on 15 October. Ahmed Patel had appealed to all people who had come in contact to isolate themselves and get a COVID test done.
Ahmed Patel, 71, has been a member of the Lok Sabha thrice and a member of the Rajya Sabha five times. In August 2018, he was appointed treasurer of the Congress Party. Ahmed Patel reached Parliament for the first time in 1977 at the age of 26 after winning the Lok Sabha elections from Bharuch. Ahmed Patel, who always did politics behind the scenes, was counted among the trusted leaders of the Congress family. He has been a Rajya Sabha MP since 1993.
Ahmedbhai Mohammedbhai Patel, better known as Ahmed Patel was the political secretary to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He is widely credited with the party’s performance in the 2004 and 2009 General elections.
Patel has represented Gujarat for eight terms in the Parliament of India; three times in the lower house or Lok Sabha (1977 – 1989) and five times in the upper House or Rajya Sabha (1993 – 2020). He was also the treasurer of the All India Congress Committee.
Patel started his political career by contesting local body elections in the Bharuch district of Gujarat in 1976. Since then, he has virtually occupied every major position in the party’s state and central wings. From January to September 1985 Ahmed Patel was the Parliamentary Secretary to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. In 1987 he in his capacity as Member of Parliament, Patel was proactive in setting up the Narmada Management Authority to monitor the Sardar Sarovar Project.
On the occasion of Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth centenary celebration, Patel was appointed the secretary of the Jawahar Bhavan Trust in 1988. He was asked by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to supervise the construction of Jawahar Bhavan in New Delhi’s Raisina Road, a project which had been stalled for more than a decade. In a record one year, just in time for Nehru’s birth centenary celebrations, Patel successfully created Jawahar Bhavan, which was at that point a highly futuristic building equipped with computers, telephones and energy-saving air conditioners. The building was constructed using funds from Congress lawmakers and partly crowd-funded through one-day cricket matches.
In 2005, Ahmed Patel had got Bharuch included as one of the first five districts to be covered under the then launched Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, to boost electrification in the district. The Sardar Patel bridge to de-congest traffic between the twin cities of Bharuch and Ankleshwar has been one of his contributions to the region.
In 2005, Ahmed Patel was inducted into the Rajya Sabha for his fourth term. Though considered Sonia Gandhi’s chief strategist, he chose to keep out of the UPA government in the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha. He maintained a low profile and avoided media and public Glare. Patel is the only second Muslim after Ehsan Jafri to be elected as a Lok Sabha MP in Gujarat.
During the UPA Government regime between 2004 and 2014, Patel was one of the chief troubleshooters, coordinators and translators between the government and party. He is also the political secretary of Sonia Gandhi in the Indian National Congress.
His most recent election to the Rajya Sabha in 2017, was controversial with the Gujarat state legislators being taken away to the southern state of Karnataka in order to prevent dissent.
Personal life
Ahmed Patel has been married to Memoona Ahmed Patel since 1976. The couple has a daughter and a son. He is known to keep a low profile and rarely interacts with the media. Apart from politics, he has been seen as a close Aide to the Nehru-Gandhi Family, which form the leadership of the party.