It’s not easy to spot Chandu Keshavlal Patel’s name and picture on his campaign vehicle. The black Scorpio is covered with hoardings of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress symbol and the party’s ‘Chak De Gujarat’ slogans. You can’t be blamed for missing the discreet banner—with his name and picture—tied horizontally across the hood.

But Patel’s supporters more than make up for that banner. At every political meeting and rally, they hand out booklets titled Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustanti. The booklets hammer home the point—printed all over in bold is ‘C.K. Patel (USA)’, both in Hindi and Gujarati.

Patel, the Congress candidate from Himmatnagar in north Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district, is the richest candidate in the fray with assets of Rs 221 crore. His $ 34 million commercial property in the US includes the Hilton Hotel Resort at Dana Point and community halls for Gujaratis in California. He is also the president-elect of the National Federation of Indian-American Associations, a body that sponsored Sunita Williams’s recent visit to the country. But Patel knows his American connections alone won’t see him through and is thus banking on his party’s emblem and its First Family.

Narendra Modi didn’t miss taking a jab at Patel’s US links. At a rally in Himmatnagar on Wednesday, Modi reportedly said the Congressman would take the first flight to the US on December 24, after the results are declared. Patel, though, appeared confident about his chances. “I will win by a margin of at least 21,000 votes.” An ambitious target that drew smirks from people who turned up to hear him.

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