Sonia snubs Patel, accepts his resignation, keeps mum on Solanki

Party spokesperson Anil Shastri made the terse announcement today when he told reporters that the Congress President had accepted Patel’s resignation “with deep regret”.

While the unseemly factional war in the Gujarat state unit between senior CWC member Madhavsinh Solanki and PCC chief C D Patel (who was backed by Ahmed Patel) provided the flashpoint for Patel’s decision to quit from his post, party sources also attributed it to the “long-known tussle” between the party treasurer and Vincent George, Sonia’s all-powerful private secretary.

The two reportedly do not get along very well and Patel is believed to have been upset for sometime with George’s “interference” in matters of which he was in-charge. George is also believed to have been instrumental in the positive “hearing” which Sonia gave to leaders of the Solanki faction — despite they being in a minority — during their recent visit to Delhi.

Patel, however, denied any rift with George, asserting after the acceptance of his resignation today that he “welcomed” it and that he had quit in the larger interest of the party. “I resigned because I felt that it would help in solving the problem in the Gujarat unit…I will continue to work for the party and the President,” he told The Indian Express.

Hectic efforts were apparently made by several senior CWC members since yesterday to get Patel to withdraw his resignation and bring about some rapprochement between the warring factions in Gujarat. A senior CWC member was in touch with Madhavsinh Solanki in Gandhinagar to work out a truce but Sonia is said to have been “very upset” by Patel’s act of resigning and then releasing copies of the letter to the media, as it were a fait accompli from his side.

In fact, in a snub to Patel, Sonia moved to discipline the Solanki faction today — AICC general secretary in charge of Gujarat Prabha Rau issued showcause notices only to three Solanki loyalists (Jagdish Thakore, Surendra Rajput and Alka Kshatriya) — but spared Madhavsinh Solanki. Also, the suspension of Solanki’s son, Bharat, a sitting MLA, by PCC chief C D Patel has not been ratified by the high command.

A peeved Patel, it now appears, was also intent on quitting from his post, with differences between him and other members of Sonia’s inner circle intensifying in the past few months. Patel, once close to former party chief Sitaram Kesri, had found himself increasingly isolated by the so-called coterie.

Sonia’s swift acceptance of Patel’s resignation, say party sources, is a manifestation of the fast-changing political equations within the party high command. A prominent member of Sonia’s trusted coterie, his rather unceremonious exit from the party treasurer’s post — with Sonia declining to back him and displaying a soft corner instead for his arch-rival (Madhavsinh Solanki) — is not going to go down well with partymen not only in Gujarat but among senior leaders in the high command.