Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is in the eye of a political storm after Gujarat ATS arrested two suspected Islamic State operatives from Surat for allegedly planning terror attacks.
One of them was Kasim Stimberwala, who worked as a laboratory technician at Sardar Patel Hospital in Ankleshwar town of Bharuch district with which Patel had been associated as a trustee.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had yesterday sought the resignation of Patel from the Rajya Sabha.
"This is a serious issue, as a terrorist was arrested from a hospital which is being run by Ahmed Patel...Patel, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress must come clean on the issue. We also want Patel to resign as Rajya Sabha MP," Rupani told a press conference.
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Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who was in Gujarat's Rajkot, today called Rupani's demand "outrageous".
"Now, if somebody who has joined in the last one year as a technician has ISIS connect, then how a trustee of three years ago is responsible," he asked at a press conference.
Patel had rejected the charge as "completely baseless", and urged the BJP not to politicise matters pertaining to national security and divide the peace-loving Gujaratis.
Surjewala said that neither Patel nor his family members were trustees of the hospital, named after Sardar Patel, or had any role in its administration.
Mounting a counteroffensive, Surjewala also asked the saffron party to come clean on why the central and Maharashtra governments were clueless when underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's wife visited Mumbai and flew back to Pakistan last year.
"Rupani has resorted to making such despicable statements and conspiracy for the BJP is afraid that 6.5 crore Gujaratis are going to reject it completely (in the Assembly polls). This shows the level to which the failed chief minister can stoop to out of fear of BJP's defeat," Surjewala said in a statement in the national capital.