While many in the Congress are interpreting it as Patel’s bid to arm twist the party to give him a ticket in the forthcoming general elections, the leader maintains it was just a chance meeting and had nothing to do with polls.

He said that his friend Mahendra Patel is a relative of Ruapala and wanted to invite the BJP leader to his son’s wedding. The Congress leader further said he accompanied Mahendra in his car and when they reached the BJP office, Mahendra went to the BJP office and “I remained seated in the car”.

According to Patel, Rupala then asked Mahendra to call him inside the office. “When I reached there, Rupala was standing at the gate to welcome me,” Patel said, adding, “I stayed there for a few minutes, as we had to visit more persons to deliver the wedding invitation.”

He went on to say that a trivial incident was blown out of proportion by some people.

State Congress president Siddharth Patel said he has already sorted out the issue by meeting Himmatsinh. It (Himmatsinh-Rupala meeting) had nothing to do with politics, he added.