Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's key political aide and one of the most influential leaders in the Congress Ahmed Patel said the party will win more than 12 seats in Gujarat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, Patel also said that the party will soon take a decision on fielding Priyanka Gandhi from Varanasi. He added the prime minister would be decided depending on the post-election arithmetic.

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's jibe against him over the Agusta Westland deal, Patel said his conscience is clear and he has nothing to hide.

In a wide-ranging interview, the Congress leader spoke about the party's election campaign and political turmoil in Gujarat, among a raft of other topics.

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Edited Excerpts:

How many seats do you expect to win in Gujarat?

This time, I can assure you that we will win more than 12 seats, it will be between 12 and 15 seats. It will be in double digits.

Congress has seen defections since the 2017 Assembly polls, eight MLAs have left, Alpesh Thakor was the recent one, isn’t this a setback to the party’s morale?

You know the BJP very well. It is engineering by BJP. I don’t want to allege anyone but at the same time, I would like to ask them if it is correct in the democratic process to ask the MLA to resign and on the same day offer them the ministry seat and appoint them as a minister. I think the people of Gujarat will teach them a lesson for what they did.

What will be the biggest issue that the Congress will be taking to the people?

Failure and false promises of the BJP. You just go through the BJP's 2014 manifesto, you will find that hardly anything they have been fulfilled. On the contrary, as I have said in my speeches, the total debt of the country is nearly Rs 82 lakh crore and Rs 32 lakh crore happened in their regime. What they have done. It is totally misrule and misgovernance.

Even though the Enforcement Directorate has not named any Congress leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made references to you and also the Gandhi family in the AgustaWestland deal. How would you respond to those allegations?

How can you expect such a baseless allegation from the Prime Minister of India? It shows how responsible he is. Even the charge sheet is in the sealed envelope and in public meetings you say like this. I don’t bother about all this. My conscious is very clear, I have not done anything wrong, and then why should I be afraid of this type of people. They have got the government, they have got the agencies, let them take action against me.

About Priyanka Gandhi, a lot has been said that she may contest from Varanasi, you know her well and you know the Congress better than most leaders in the party. Is she going to contest?

I can’t say at the moment. She may contest, she may not contest and ultimately the decision will be taken after consulting the party.

So those consultations are on and very soon we could hear something about it?

Let us see, I cannot say that at this moment. I don’t want to comment on anything. She herself has said she may contest.

Do you feel she will be a challenger against the Prime Minister?

Of course, it will be a challenge.

First Published:Apr 17, 2019 2:30 PM IST