Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel grilled in Gujarat HC

Senior Congress leader and party's national treasurer Ahmed Patel on Thursday was cross-examined by lawyers of BJP leader Balwantsinh Rajput in the Gujarat High Court which is conducting the trial of election petition that has challenged Patel's 2017 Rajya Sabha victory.

During the questioning when Patel was not able to follow the procedure, he told the court, "I am sorry, this is the first time I have come to a court." The 70 years old veteran Congress leader, lost his cool, when senior advocate Satyapal Jain, who represents Rajput, questioned him "How close he was with the Congress president Rahul Gandhi and past president Sonia Gandhi." Patel later answered that he was political adviser to Sonia Gandhi from 2003 to 2017.

Senior party leader and advocate P Chidambaram also appeared for Patel along with other local advocates. Patel was asked to give details of posts he held in the Congress since the beginning. He was questioned about all the MLAs from Gujarat and other party workers who helped him during the Rajya Sabha election. Majority of the questions surrounded personal details of Patel including names of his personal secretaries, his landline and cell phone numbers, his movements during the polls among others. Jain also asked Patel about the responsibility of a treasurer in the party and who takes care of financial logs.

Patel's cross-examination will be continued on Friday. He was accompanied by Gujarat's top leadership including party president Amit Chavda, leader of opposition in state assembly Paresh Dhanani, Shaktisinh Gohil, chief spokesperson Manish Doshi among others.

Rajput in his petition has leveled several allegations against Patel that includes, "being guilty of committing corrupt practice of bribery," "entertaining voters at different places including at Bangalore & Anand for purpose of securing their votes in election in dispute," "votes of Bholabhai Gohil and Raghavji Patel (Congress rebels) were illegally rejected by returning officer," "votes cast by Shailesh Parmar and Mitesh Garasiya (Congress MLAs) illegally accepted as legal votes," among others.