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He has sprung a surprise by filing his nomination papers in two sets; as Congress candidate and as an Independent candidate at a time when Laxman Singh, the younger brother of Digvijay Singh, is pitted against BJP's senior leader Sushma Swaraj. She is contesting the seat for the second consecutive term.
A former minister in Digvijay's cabinet, Patel was fielded against Swaraj in 2009 from the seat but district election officer rejected his candidature since he had failed to meet the deadline of submitting the mandatory 'B-Form' in original.
The party had expelled him for six years following allegations of connivance with BJP. After that Swaraj romped home with glee and won the seat with a huge margin of nearly 400,000 votes.
To prove himself innocent, Patel moved high court in 2009 challenging his rejection. The matter is still pending.
Now, Patel is learnt to have gone to Delhi to justify the top party bosses that it was not his fault. "He has gone to muster support for his candidature," said a source in Congress.
Patel, though had said at several occasions that he wanted to clear his name as some of his opponents had conspired to tarnish his image over a little procedural issue.
However, another Congress party source said, "If Congress rehabilitates him, he may withdraw and work for Laxman Singh. This might be a tactic of Digvijay Singh."
But what if party ignores him, could he harm the party more? "On parameters of performance, Swaraj herself has yet to prove in the constituency. Also, expelled senior party leader Raghvji made efforts to get a BJP ticket for his daughter Jyoti Shah who is also the mayor of the town.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan won the recent assembly seats by an unimpressive margin of 16,000 votes. The turf is tough for BJP too, however, Modi is a strong factor to render additional advantage to the BJP. However against all odds, Patel's entry would only damage the Congress.
