Ahmed Patel wins Gujarat Rajya Sabha third seat

The Congress has emerged victorious in the ping-pong game called Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections leaving the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) battered and bruised after the Election Commission quashed votes of two Congress MLAs who cross-voted.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel has just managed to sail through to Rajya Sabha getting 44 votes. BJP president Amit Shah has also made his Parliament debut along with Union Minister Smriti Irani.

Speaking exclusively to India Today, Ahmed Patel described the  Rajya Sabha elections as one of the most difficult tests of his political career. "It was the most difficult election of my life. I salute my MLAs and people of the state. The people of Gujarat are fed up with the BJP. Now, our next target is Assembly polls," Ahmed Patel said.

It was after a gap of about two decades that a contest took place in Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, where official nominees of major parties used to get elected unopposed, and it went down to the wire.

Voting for three Rajya Sabha seats, for which both the BJP and the Congress had fielded heavyweights - Amit Shah, Smriti Irani and Ahmed Patel - began in the morning but the high-voltage drama enfolded from Gandhinagar to New Delhi only after the sunset on Tuesday (August 8). There was another late night twist in the story when Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) MLA Nalin Kotadia released a video and claimed he didn't vote in favour of the BJP.

Counting of votes for the three Rajya Sabha seats was supposed to start at 5 pm on Tuesday but it was held up after the Congress approached the Election Commission with a plea to invalidate the votes of its two MLAs - RaghavjiPatel and Bhola Gohil - who cross-voted in favour of the BJP.

The Congress demanded that the votes of the two MLAs be quashed as they 'showed'



their ballots to the party's authorised agent as well as to the BJP's agent.

The Congress rushed a battery of senior party leaders including P Chidambaram, Randeep Surjewala. RPN Singh to the Election Commission's office in New Delhi to put forth its case.

The BJP responded with a heavier delegation at the Election Commission which included Union Ministers Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal and others.

"There is enough evidence that the ballot paper were seen by people other than those authorised. The Election Commission must reject these ballot papers as it did in Haryana in June 2016," said P Chidambaram.

"The Congress's allegations have no substance and they are setting a wrong precedent," Ravi Shankar Prasad said, adding that his party has full faith in the Election Commission.

Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and RPN Singh also produced a video of the poll proceedings to the commission and demanded that votes of Bholabhai Gohil and Raghavjibhai Patel be cancelled as per law since they violated the "secrecy of ballot".

Terming Congress' objections as 'baseless', the BJP delegation demanded immediate counting of votes, contending that validity of votes once put in ballot boxes cannot be questioned.

176 members of the Gujarat Assembly voted for the three Rajya Sabha seats. After the Election Commission declared two Congres votes invalid, the number was down to 174. Ahmed Patel needed 44 votes to get elected to the Upper House.

Ahmed Patel's victory has provided a much needed shot in the arm for the Congress ahead of Assembly elections in Gujarat scheduled to be held later this year. On the other hand, it has come as a big setback for BJP and Amit Shah in particular as the ruling party wanted to demolish Congress' morale ahead of the crucial state polls.