Surat: Gujarat Congress today held a function to felicitate party’s 43 MLAs and recently re-elected Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel at Indoor stadium in Surat.

Speaking at the function Ahmed Patel said the Rajya Sabha victory of one seat in Gujarat was just a trailer and film will come in the month of November in a form of general elections of Gujarat Assembly.

Ahmed Patel addressing the BJP said:

Yeh to iftida e ishq hai rota hai kyun
Aage age dekho hota hai kya

We need to introspect about our shortcomings, assessment of self is necessary for preparation of upcoming assembly polls. Unity is very important. No party can win without unity. We need hard work, commitment and determination to win the Gujarat polls. Only five Pandavs had defeated 100 Kauravs. Adil Shah had 1200 strong army while Chhatrapati Shivaji had only 500 soldiers with him, but through various plans and strategy, Shivaji could win Bijapur fort. We need plan and strategy to win Gujarat polls for which very few days are left.

On Rajya Sabha polls, Ahmed Patel said: You had to resist for victory in this election. When someone asked Gautam Buddha why so much suffering and pain, Buddha replied that deeper the struggle, sweeter the victory tastes. One seat victory in Rajya Sabha was a smaller one. We need to work hard and struggle more to achieve the goal of victory in Gujarat.

Ahmed Patel chanted a slogan during his speech: Gujarat Ki Ek Hi Hai Pukar, Ab Ki Baar Congress Ki Sarkar.

Speaking further on Rajya Sabha win, Ahmed Patel said, ‘we were 57(MLAs) but 14 went away, they were weak people. We will take care in future that we don’t give tickets to such weak persons. One third of 43 MLAs who stayed with the party are from tribal community. The package from BJP was attractive. It had money, it had promise of ticket and also assurance to do couple of tasks such as transfer.’

Ahmed Patel said: We need to be alert. BJP has asked a political party to field those who are denied Congress ticket in order to snatch two thousand, five thousand whatever votes of Congress.

Ahmed Patel said only 182 tickets can be allotted to party men. But that doesn’t mean others are not capable. Our house needs to be in order. Post Rajya Sabha polls, unity has been achieved in Congress, but we need to stay alert.

He slammed ‘misuse’ of IT, ED, CBI, agencies by BJP government in Centre. He said: Surat city is bleeding, where’s diamond industry, where’s silk industry? The city was world center of diamond industry but now due to foolishness of government, thousands are in trouble. Demonetization was introduced without preparedness. GST pushed people in trouble. While the government was celebrating Silk festival, thousands were agitating in Surat. Introduction of GST was a step without proper thinking. Traders said give us just three months but government was not ready. Ordinary people don’t have technical staff, computers etc. How they can file accounts? This government didn’t give them time. Employment is not available. In Gujarat, all sections are sad. Youths are unemployed, women are not safe, farmers, don’t get price, 2022 double bhav. milk had to be dumped, potato, vegetables had to be dumped.

He also mentioned caste group agitators Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani in his speech and slammed government for taking actions against them.

DeshGujarat