Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The eyes of everyone look forward to the elections for the three seats of the Rajya Sabha in Gujarat. Four candidates are standing in three seats. The victory of Amit Shah and Smriti Irani on behalf of BJP is being considered convincing.

The main suspense is building on the third seat where two contestants Ahmed Patel and Balwant Singh Rajput are fighting for the same seat. While on one hand Congress leader and political advisor to Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel is contesting for the fifth term in Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, BJP has fielded Balwant Singh Rajput who recently resigned from Congress to join BJP, against Patel. It is a crucial election for the Congress

After 6 of its lawmakers quit the party just ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls and three out of them joined BJP, these elections have become all the more crucial for Congress. Just to take precautions and be on the safer side, Congress earlier last week had flown 44 of its MLAs to Bengaluru in the fear of BJP bribing and luring away its MLAs. These MLAs were flown back to Gujarat for the voting.

While Amit Shah is confident about his victory and debut in the House, Smriti Irani is contesting for the second term. The main tension builds between Balwant Singh and Ahmed Patel. Other than Congress Patel is counting on votes from 2 legislators from Sharad Pawar‘s NCP. However, there seems to be some confusion amongst the party as an NCP leader last night gave the statement that the party chief has ordered them to vote for the BJP contestants, whereas Sharad said early on Tuesday morning that the party will be backing Congress.

After witnessing cross voting during the Presidential polls, Congress has issued strict warnings to its legislators that any move to defy the party’s order to vote for Mr. Patel will attract a heavy penalty, including legal action that could mean being barred from contesting elections.

Each contestant needs 45 votes to win The Assembly’s strength is 176, out of which BJP has 122, which makes the victory of Shah and Irani a foregone conclusion. While for the third seat BJP will need cross voting to win. Ahmed Patel has the support of 44 Congres MLAs and is hoping to get the support of 2 NCP MLAs, though their support is still in a dicey situation.

The voting began at 9 a.m. at the Swarnim Sankul Bhawan of the Gujarat Assembly building at 9 am and continue till 4 pm. The results will be declared by 6 pm.

Shakersinh Vaghela who quit Congress last month on the grounds of mismanagement of distribution of tickets in the party and the party Chief not paying heed to his complaints. As per the latest updates, Vaghela has just cast his vote in favor of BJP saying that when Congress is not going to win, whats the point voting for Congress.