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GANDHINAGAR: Sonal Patel, whom the Congress has fielded against Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, said she was not at all hesitant to fight the upcoming election against the senior BJP leader.The 62-year-old leader, who is All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and the party co-incharge of Mumbai and western Maharashtra, claimed that anti-incumbency prevails as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has failed to fulfil the aspirations of people.She also accused the ruling party of intimidating Congress workers in her constituency and sought a “level-playing field” in fighting elections.In an interview to PTI, Patel said, “I had not asked for a ticket from the party as I was busy with Congress’s affairs in Maharashtra, where I am co-incharge of Mumbai and Western Maharashtra.But the party fielded me from Gandhinagar and I accepted it.” “Our workers are being intimidated, nobody is ready to rent a space to us for organising meetings of party workers fearing that they will be targeted once the elections are over. Police are calling our city and district leaders to police stations in some frivolous cases from the past. BJP is using administrative machinery to fight elections,” she alleged.This shows that they are scared and not on a firm footing, Patel said, adding, “I don’t know if Amit Shah is aware of these tactics that BJP’s local leaders are employing.Everybody should get a level-playing field to fight elections.” An architect by profession, Patel said she was not hesitant in taking on Shah in Gandhinagar, a BJP bastion from where former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former deputy prime minister L K Advani had contested elections.”He (Shah) may be the home minister of the country, but we have seen him from the days when he was a common BJP worker,” she said.”From a grassroot worker from Naranpura (Amit Shah’s assembly constituency when he was MLA) he has risen to be the home minister of the country. My father was Congress municipal councillor from Naranpura and we have seen him grow.I have also worked my way up from grassroots like him,” she said.”And when people cast their vote, they will not choose (their MP) thinking that he is the home minister or that I am a simple party worker,” she said, adding that that was the reason she did not hesitate even a bit to contest the election against Shah.The Congress had earlier fielded bigwigs like former election commissioner T N Seshan, actor Rajesh Khanna to give a fight to BJP heavyweights from Gandhinagar seat.Explaining the reason why the Congress did not field any heavyweight candidate from outside against Shah, she said, “There are two problems in calling heavyweight candidates from outside – the person does not know anything about the area and he has to be hand-held, and after the defeat when the candidate leaves, a vacuum is created. So it is better to choose a local candidate instead.”
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‘Not hesitant to fight LS poll against Amit Shah,’ says Sonal Patel, Congress candidate in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar
