Written by Gargi Sahasrabuddhe, a grade 7 student

Ahmedbhai Mohammedbhai Patel, who died recently, was an Indian politician and Member of Parliament from the Indian National Congress.

Born on 21 August, 1949 in Gujrat to a Bharuch–based agriculturalist family, he was the third child of Mohammed Ishikji Patel and Hawaben Mohammedbhai.

Political career

Ahmed Patel started his political career by contesting local body elections in the Bharuch district of Gujarat in 1976. In 1977, he was selected by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to contest election for the sixth Lok Sabha from Bharuch. He won the elections, and subsequent elections in 1980 and 1984 were also won by him.

In 1985, he became the Parliamentary Secretary to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was also appointed the Secretary of Jawahar Bhavan Trust in 1988 and was credited with having completed the construction of Jawahar Bhavan in time for Nehru’s Birth Centenary Celebration.

In 2005 Ahmed Patel was inducted into the Rajya Sabha for his fourth term. Though he was considered Sonia Gandhi’s Chief Strategist, he chose to keep out of the UPA Government in the fourteenth and fifteenth Lok Sabha between 2004 and 2014. Patel was the only second Muslim after Ehsan Jafri to be elected as Lok Sabha MP in Gujarat. He served as Political Secretary to Sonia Gandhi, the President of the Indian National Congress. In 2018, Ahmed Patel was appointed as the Treasurer of the All India Congress Committee, replacing senior party member Motilal Vora.

He was married to Memoona Ahmed Patel in 1976. The couple had a daughter and a son, namely Mumtaz Patel and Faisal Patel. He was known to keep a low profile and seldom interacted with the media.

He died on 25^th November 2020, due to multiple organ failure stemming from COVID-19.

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