Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

In Gujarat, from the three seats of the Rajya Sabha elections, BJP occupied two seats. However, the most discussed here is the victory of the Congress‘ Chanakya ‘Ahmed Patel‘ in the third seat.

After voting for the Rajya Sabha elections, the results came after about 10 hours of high-voltage drama on Tuesday, in which BJP President Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani got 46-46 votes and Ahmed Patel won with 44 votes. After the cancellation of the votes of two Congress MLAs in the state’s 176-member assembly, the victory figure reached 43.51. In this case, Patel’s victory margin may appear slight, but according to the affairs of the state’s politics, it matters a lot.

Gujarat is going to face assembly elections later this year. For this reason, Rajya Sabha elections, which are usually conducted without any noise, witnessed huge ruckus this time. All the exercises of political savvy Amit Shah to make a psychological edge on the Congress before the elections in the state failed as Congress emerged as the winner. This victory is like a life line for the almost sinking Congress in the state.

Ahmed Patel thanked all the MLAs who voted for him saying that “I want to thank each & every MLA who voted for me despite unprecedented intimidation & pressure from BJP.They voted for an inclusive India”, he added. “BJP stands exposed of personal vendetta and political terror. People of Gujarat will give them a befitting reply in this year’s election.”

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi also congratulated Patel for his victory and tweeted “5 Cabinet Ministers rush to EC, shows BJP’s desperation for one Rajya Sabha Seat after it failed in buying MLAs.”

Shankersinh Vaghela, the leader of Gujarat, left the Congress party just before the Rajya Sabha elections. At the time of this announcement of Vaghela, Congress did not give it much thought, saying that due to his departure the party would not face much damage. However, in these elections, the faction inside Congress some of whom have quit the party and few cross votings has made the party realize the power of the Vaghela camp. In such a situation, the party will now have enough time ahead of the assembly elections to compensate for this loss.

Congress is hoping to overthrow the BJP and establish its government in the state this year by using the resentment against the government within the Patidars, Dalits and other backward sections in the state in their favour. If Congress would have lost in the Rajya Sabha, it would have been difficult for the party to win the trust of people in the state as an alternative to BJP.

In such critical circumstances with the party struggling to keep its position safe in Gujarat this victory of Ahmed Patel has certainly created a hope in Congress, although the party needs to keep the hope alive in the party workers also.