Gujarat Dy CM Nitin Patel denies incident involving his son

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Tuesday denied reports that his son was not allowed to board a flight as he was drunk and termed it as “totally misleading.”

“There was no such incident,” he said, when asked about his son Jaimin Patel allegedly being not allowed to board a Qatar airways flight on Monday as he was drunk.

“The message doing rounds on social media (which was picked by local news website) is totally false. He had gone to the airport with his wife and children. However, he had some health problem after which his wife called our home and it was decided that they should come back from the airport,” Patel said. CHENNAI: AIADMK (Amma) faction on Tuesday hit back at the rebel O Panneerselvam camp by claiming that many from the rival group were making efforts to join the ruling side. “Many (in the rival camp) are making efforts to come over here. That will happen soon,” Finance Minister D Jayakumar said.

Reacting to a comment of O Panneerselvam loyalist S Semmalai that a majority of ministers were in a “mood” to switch over to their side, he said it may have been to try and halt crossover from their side and placate their followers.

Semmalai, a former minister, had yesterday told reporters at Salem that a majority of ministers were “disillusioned” and were in touch with them.

Claiming that the crossover will happen to the Amma camp, Jayakumar, also holding the Fisheries portfolio, said Semmalai’s ₹cross-over’ comment was like aiming to “plug the leak in a boat with salt.”

He said the party workers were united and government will complete its term in 2021.

The AIADMK (Amma) faction had recently described as “opportunism” rival O Panneerselvam camp’s demand for a CBI probe into former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa’s death as a precondition for merger talks. The merger talks have failed to make any headway with the OPS faction sticking to their demands.