Don’t have staggered polls for 2 Gujarat RS seats: Congress

New Delhi, June 14: The Congress has demanded that the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat should be held simultaneously.

The RS seat of Amit Shah was declared vacant after he won the Lok Sabha elections from Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Another seat that was declared vacant in the Rajya Sabha was the one held by Smriti Irani, who won the LS polls from Amethi by defeating Rahul Gandhi.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that if you have one election today and one after two or four weeks, then you will be enabling the ruling party's MLAs to simply cross 51 per cent in the Gujarat assembly.

He also said that the party had told the EC if elections for the two seats to be held on two separate dates, it would be both unconstitutional and illegal.

The BJP has 99 MLAs in Gujarat, while the Congress has 77. He said that if the polls are staggered then the BJP will win both the seats. In case polls are held together, then both parties will win a seat each in the Rajya Sabha, Singhvi also added.