Ahmedabad: Rajya Sabha seat candidate from Gujarat Ahmed Patel in his interview to journalist Swati Chaturvedi (published on NDTV opinion section):

Shah has personal grudge against me, I have never done anything to personally harm him

– Shah has a personal grudge against me which is why they are going all out using the most underhand means that I have ever seen in my 40 years of politics to ensure that I lose. Money power, muscle power, you name it – they have deployed it.

– Please ask Mr Shah. I don’t know. I have never done anything to personally harm him.

We had to take MLAs to Bengaluru because BJP don’t follow any norms

– Modi and Shah are so power hungry. Look what they have done in Bihar. They did not have a single MLA in Arunachal, yet they have formed the government. They can go to any extent. They are seeing power for the first time in the centre and that is why they are going all out, using any means to keep it.

– Rupani is Shah’s puppet, do I need to respond to him? I pity him. Let him worry about his party. We had to take the MLAs (to Bengaluru) because they (the BJP) don’t follow any norms. They were harassing them. I am camped in Gujarat and am ensuring flood relief and so are the MLAs.

If I was greedy for power, I would have been a minister since Rajiv Gandhi’s time

– I had told party president Sonia Gandhi, that I did not want a fifth term of the Rajya Sabha, but when she told him that she had nominated me, I had to contest.

– Had offered that Mr Vaghela could have his Rajya Sabha seat, but party turned down the proposal.

– Power hungry are those people who engineer riots to get in to power. Who engineered communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh to get in to power? If I was greedy for power, I would have been a minister since Rajiv Gandhi’s time. I have been offered plum ministries four times – twice by Dr Manmohan Singh – yet I never accepted (them) as I wanted to work for the party.

I am contesting as a candidate not as political secretary to Congress chief

-I am contesting as a candidate not as secretary to the congress president. How are the two linked? Please don’t involve her or my Vice President Rahul Gandhi in this.

DeshGujarat