BJP and Congress are on tenterhook, Congress hopes for cross voting from BJP, Ahmed Patel puts his weight for final showdown
By Abdul Hafiz Lakhani Gandhinagar
On the eve of the Rajya Sabha elections for four seats in Gujarat , legislators of the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in the state are holding meetings to finalise their strategies for the poll. Election will be held tomorrow. Congress stalwart and treasurer Ahmed Patel is already in Ahmedabad and making hectic effrorts to get required votes.
According to realiable sources, two BJP MLAs are in touch with a big Congress leader and they may cross vote. They are from Central Gujarat. A minister from Gujarat cabinet is keeping close watch on these two lawmakers. It is being claimed that they are not happy with state BJP unit.
According to a local TV. channel, BJP is not taking any chances. CM Vijay Rupani, Deputy CM Nitin Patel and state President Jitu vadhani are in constant touch with all MLAs.
Rajya Sabha elections for 4 seats in Gujarat on June 19, both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress party on claimed victory of their candidates, despite equations suggesting otherwise. The BJP has fielded three candidates while the Congress has fielded two candidates for the 4 Rajya Sabha seats in the state.
There aren’t enough votes of MLAs for both the parties, if the third BJP candidate or the second Congress candidate has to win. Despite that both the parties on claimed victory.
The BJP has fielded Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin while the Congress has nominated Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki.
In the 182-member state assembly, the BJP has 103 seats while the opposition Congress has only 65, with eight of its MLAs resigning during the last 3-4 months. Prior to the earlier scheduled poll date of March 26, five Congress MLAs had resigned, while 3 of the party’s legislators resigned in the first week of June.
Looking at the current strength, the BJP has enough votes to win two seats and Congress one seat, as according to the new situation, each Rajya Sabha candidate needs 35 votes. The BJP is short of two votes which it is banking on getting it from the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which is 2 and 1 seats in the state assembly respectively.
In this scenario, role of two MLAs of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), one legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Independent Jignesh Mevani has become crucial.
“Whether it’s the BJP or the Congress in Gujarat, there is no need to fear as the Rajya Sabha elections will be held in free and fair manner and Congress friends need not fear. With full confidence we are saying that BJP will win all the three seats and we don’t need any votes from others,” said Pradeepsinh Jadeja, the minister of state for home.
“Anything can happen… Last time BJP stalwart like R.C. Faldu had goofed up during the Rajya Sabha elections. So such errors can happen anytime. We have planned our strategy for the elections and we are confident that both of our candidates will win,” said Amit Chavda, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president.
A meeting was held at the Uma Samaj Bhavan, at Umiya temple in Gandhinagar for the BJP MLAs, chaired by the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to plan and train its MLAs for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Both the parties very well know that every single vote matters and the BJP knows it and to prevent any goof-up the MLAs were trained on how to vote for the first preference, the second preference and third preference.
Similarly, the Congress too a held similar meeting at the Hotel Umed in Ahmedabad on today afternoon, where most of its MLAs have been holed up, with the Congress fearing horse trading by the BJP. As a matter of precaution all the MLAs were instructed to switch off their phones for the next two days till the elections were held.
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad,Gujarat , India based website)
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