Rajya Sabha election: How the drama unfolded in Gujarat and Delhi

He also claimed that as eight Congress MLAs cross-voted and party’s official candidate will lose. Ahmed Patel was quick to retort saying he was confident of the victory.

It was an eventful Tuesday and at the end of it, Ahmed Patel made it to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat. This is the fifth time that he is entering the Rajya Sabha.

Ahmed Patel was pitted against Balvantsinh Rajput, the Congress rebel who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. BJP national president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani won the other two seats.

There was plenty of suspense through the day with claims and counter claims made by both the Congress and the BJP. What added a twist to the tale was the stand taken by the JD(U) which has one MLA in the Gujarat legislative assembly. While the JD(U)'s spokesperson K C Tyagi said that the vote had gone to the BJP, the MLA himself countered the same and said he had voted in favour of the Congress.

The Congress went to the Election Commission of India seeking that the two votes by its MLAs be declared null and void. The Congress said its two rebel legislators had showed ballot paper to the BJP polling agent.

"We had demanded that video tape should be run, our claim be checked and two votes should be cancelled," said Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil, adding, "If required, we are ready to take this fight to the Supreme Court."

The legal battle began in the state Election Commission which had rejected the plea made by the Congress. This prompted an appeal in the ECI by the Congress. Senior BJP leaders also made it to the ECI on Tuesday night to put forth the party's case. Deputy chief minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel alleged, "The Congress delayed the counting because they have seen the defeat coming,'' and said after the state election office had rejected the Congress plea for cancellation of two votes.

In the morning, former Congress legislature party leader Shankersinh Vaghela attracted the spotlight as he claimed that he had not voted for Patel. "I did not vote for the Congress. I did not want to waste my vote when Congress is not winning," he said.

He also claimed that as eight Congress MLAs cross-voted and party's official candidate will lose. Ahmed Patel was quick to retort saying he was confident of the victory.

Those who cross-voted also include Karmshi Patel, Sanand Congress MLA, who was part of the 44 MLAs taken by the Congress to Bengaluru levelling charges of horse-trading against the BJP.

All 44 of them, who were on Monday shifted from Bengaluru to a resort in Ananad, over 100 km from Gandhinagar, were Tuesday brought together in a bus at polling station in secretariat. State senior leaders lined up to greet them as they got down from bus and left for polling.

There was a lot of suspense till the last minute as it was not clear which party the one of the two NCP MLAs had voted for. The lone JD(U) MLA too added to the suspense who told the media that he had voted for the nation.

OneIndia News