‘I Am 70, My Memory Is Weak’: Ahmed Patel When Quizzed In Gujarat HC Over Petition Challenging His RS Victory

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel has claimed that his memory is weak owing to old age after being quizzed in the Gujarat High Court over the incidents which unfolded during the 2017 Rajya Sabha elections, when Congress leaders were taken to resorts in Bengaluru avoid cross-voting, Ahmedabad Mirror has reported.

The 2017 Rajya Sabha election in which Ahmed Patel was seeking reelection to the upper house had witnessed high drama after six Congress legislators had defected from the party.

As a result 44 Congress MLAs were shifted to a resort outside Bengaluru to avoid cross-voting. Patel finally achieved a nail-biting victory by winning exactly 44 votes and was aided by the disqualification of two rebel Congress votes.

Following the election, a petition was filed in the Gujarat High Court against this outcome by BJP leader Balvantsinh Rajput.

Hence, during one of the proceedings in the matter Patel repeatedly replied “I don’t remember” to various questions posed by the plaintiff’s lawyers in court. When confronted over the same, Patel in his defence said that, “I am 70-year-old and my memory is not sharp enough”.

Some of the questions posed by the lawyers, to which Patel had no answer to when shown a video clip of him addressing a press conference, were:

• If you did not give this media byte on the morning of 7 August, then when did you give it
• Are you saying this even after being shown these photographs and video clips
• Can you say whether the byte was given to the media between 25 July and 7 August evening
• Did you give media byte on morning of August 8

The cross-examination which lasted for four days was finally completed on Tuesday (25 June).