Ahmed Patel gets back at Modi for jibe: Gujarat needs CM, not Sultan

Patel was addressing an election rally at Jambusar along with actor and Congress leader Raj Babbar.

"Narendra Modi has become a Sultan, and not remained a chief minister," he said at the rally held near Jambusar bus station, just half-a-kilometre away from the Union Gym grounds where Modi had said the Congress wanted to make Ahmed "Mian" Patel the chief minister of Gujarat.

Denying that he is not in the race for the chief minister's post, Patel said he had dubbed Modi as a Sultan because of his dictatorial style of functioning and frequent references to the UPA government as Delhi Sultanate.

Jambusar Assembly constituency falls in Patel's native district of Bharuch and is going to polls on December 13. Sitting Congress MLA Kiran Makwana is contesting again.

Patel said Modi was the only chief minister who had gone on foreign trips in chartered planes, wasting public money. "Gujarat required a CM, not a Sultan," he said.

Dismissing Modi's oft-repeated "Gujarat model of development", Patel said it was "Modi model of development". "But what Gujarat or the nation requires is Mahatma Gandhi's model or Sardar Patel's model, not Modi's model. Modi can't become the model for Gujarat," he said, adding that under Modi, only a few corporates had benefitted and Gujarat's public debt had gone up to Rs 1,43,000 crore while widening the gap between the rich and poor.

He warned that if the country followed Modi's model, it would have women and children suffering from malnutrition and anaemia as they were suffering in Gujarat under Modi's rule.

Taking a dig at Modi's Sadbhavna Yatra, Patel said, "How could there be sadbhavna if you have a heart of stone? People have been tolerating Modi for 12 years but they would now defeat him."

Babbar, who also addressed the gathering, said Modi's announcement of building 50 lakh houses in the next five years had exposed his development claims.

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