The dramatic results of the Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls turned out to be rather costly for BJP and the ambitious BJP party President Amit Shah.
After the resignation of rebel Shakersinh Vaghela from Congress, BJP was having high expectations that with the help of calculated moves of Vaghela the party will be able to lure in a few more members of Congress. However, Vaghela’s calculation hit him back hard breaking the hopes of BJP. Vaghela had decided to split the Congress down the middle last month and he resigned as the leader of the opposition, he estimated that apart from his 15 core loyalists in the Congress legislature party of 57 members, there were at least a dozen more fence-sitters who would leave the party.
Confident about his estimation he made a deal with BJP Party President Amit Shah ahead of the Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls to defeat Congress candidate Ahmed Patel. Just after Vaghela quit the party 6 more of its lawmakers also resigned out of which 3 joined BJP. One of them was Balwant Singh Rajput, who was immediately nominated against Ahmed Patel. Vaghela had confidently claimed that about 30 Congress MLAs would leave the “sinking ship” if they were promised BJP tickets in the forthcoming assembly elections.
The offer was too tempting for Amit Shah as he always held grudges against Patel and wanted his defeat at any cost for allegedly plotting false cases against him and also getting him arrested him by the CBI. Vaghela planned to shake the already disheartened Congress from the very roots by slowly asking his loyal members to resign from party ahead of the polls. Six lawmakers also gave their resignations however Vaghela could not meet the expected number and the plan backfired him and BJP.
After the failure of Vaghela’s plan, it is doubtful if the BJP will keep his promise of giving tickets to the six MLAs who resigned and another eight who cross-voted.