The Election Commission of India is awaiting a reply from the Gujarat Minister for Petroleum and Energy Saurabh Patel on whether he is related to the Ambani family.
This comes on the back of Patel’s complaint against Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who had levelled allegations about Patel’s relations with the Ambani family being responsible to get him the petroleum portfolio in the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat.
Patel’s complaint seems to have backfired and put him in a tight spot. The Election Commission had raised two basic queries from Patel’s complaint and forwarded the same to the state chief electoral officer to get it answered from him.
“The EC has asked what are the portfolios that Mr Patel holds as a cabinet minister and whether he has any relations to the Ambani Family,” Aswini Kumar, special chief electoral officer- Gujarat, told
“We have sent the query two-three days back (to Mr Patel) but so far have not received any reply,” added Kumar.
On his four-day visit to Gujarat in first week of March, Kejriwal had raised several key issues and alleged favour to Ambani family by making their family member as a cabinet minister in the government.
Miffed Patel had raised the matter with EC and filed a complaint against Kejriwal citing violation of code of conduct stating that petroleum affairs being Central subject, the allegations were baseless.
“I have relations with the Ambani Family for 25 years now. I don’t deny that. EC has sought information and I will reply soon,” Patel said.
As a Cabinet rank minister, Patel currently holds Energy and Petrochemicals, Mines and Minerals, Cottage Industries, Salt Industries, Printing, Stationary, Planning, Tourism, Civil Aviation, Labour and Employment portfolios. He has been holding the energy and petrochemicals portfolio in the Modi government as minister of state since December 2002. He was elevated to the cabinet rank after the 2012 Assembly elections.
Interestingly, Patel is seen as one of the three potential successors to Modi, in the event of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) making the latter the Prime Minister. The other two potential successors are Anandiben Patel, revenue minister and Nitin Patel, finance minister in the Modi government.
Saurabh Patel currently represents Akota Assembly constituency, a part of the Vadodara parliamentary constituency from where BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Modi will run.