The US may not give chief minister Narendra Modi a visa, but that does not stop US NRG politicos from coming to Gujarat seeking political lessons from him. Ahmedabad-born Niranjan ‘Neil’ Patel, who is ready to seek Ohio’s 12th District Senate seat in 2014, is sending his daughter Roshni Patel, a political science student from the State Ohio University, for internship under Modi this June.
Neil Patel of Westerville, Ohio, an erstwhile Dunkin Donuts franchisee turned hotelier and Indian American community activist, is highly inspired by Modi. Patel, who is considered to be a high cadre politician in the US, and is also to contest election for the President’s delegate in US scheduled for April 12, said, “My daughter would do strategizing and handling finance management for my run for senate elections and before she does this, I have organized to send her to take sound political lessons from Modi.”
Patel, who was in the city to participate in the ‘International Conference on Indian Diasporas: Linkages and Synergy’ already had a detailed meeting with Modi to discuss this.
Praising Modi’s Sadbhavana mission, he said, “That is one of the best ways to have face to face contact with the public and that rapport helps.” Patel said that in 2010 when he ran for the state senate elections, he followed a similar practice by knocking on 33,000 doors during his campaign.
“And the response was mind blowing. My Democratic Party head had expected me to fetch only 11 percent of the total votes, as there was a strong Republican wave going on. However, the strategy of having personalized connections with voters helped us to fetch 33 percent votes,” he said.
As the elections are nearing, Patel is now finalizing his political strategies and hence he wants his daughter to take in-depth political lessons from Modi that can help him fight the upcoming elections. “In 2010, my election campaign began in a unique way with concerts by tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain in five different cities in the US. This time too I plan for an uncommon beginning and would employ novel political strategies learnt from Gujarat,” added Patel.
