Ahmed Patel's RS victory a morale booster for Congress ahead of Gujarat polls

Patel's win has created a will to win for a moribund and rudderless Gujarat Congress

It was close to 3 am and he had just won a battle of his life. A TV reporter asked him, “Sir, it must have been tough?”

“Tough? It was the toughest, I have contested five Lok Sabha and four Rajya Sabha elections but this was the toughest. I don’t know why,” Ahmed Patel paused looking at the floor, and shrugged, “I don’t know why me, why?” The signature coiffure, half concealed his strained forehead; he looked not like a victor on his face, but a survivor.

Suddenly, he shuddered as though with an adrenaline rush and got up to go, moving