Amid turbulence over resignations of Congress legislators, newly appointed party’s chief whip in the State Assembly Shailesh Parmar on Tuesday issued a whip to all Congress MlAs to give their first preference vote to party candidate and All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha polls to be held on August 8.
Parmar has sent letters to all 51 existing MlAs of the party including that of former leader of the Opposition Shankersinh Vaghela who resigned from the post and also quit the Congress. He has also conveyed them to face repercussions for breach of the whip and asked not to use ‘None of The Above’ (NOTA) button.
Patel requires 45 votes to ensure fifth term in the upper house of the Indian Parliament. After the resignations of six Congress MlAs, strength of the party reduced to 51 in the Gujarat legislative assembly. Rumours over more resignations by the Congress MlAs are hovering around in the political circles of Gujarat.
In order to curb more resignations, Congress leadership have taken 44 MlAs to Bengaluru. These MlAs would come fly back to their home-State on Monday evening, a day ahead of the elections of three RS seats in the State. The party also claims about support of two NCP legislators, one JD (U) and one rebel BJP MlA Nalin Kotadia, who originally elected from former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel’s political outfit Gujarat Parivartan Party. But he came into BJP fold ahead of the lok Sabha polls after Keshubhai decided to merge his party with the saffron brigade.
If everything occurs as per Gujarat Congress leadership’s claims, Patel would easily sail through. With a view to keep MlAs away from cross-voting, Parmar has clearly conveyed to congress legislators that if they wouldn’t follow the party whip, automatically disqualified to contest assembly polls for the next six years.
However, Gujarat’s Minister of State for parliamentary affairs, Pradeepsinh Jadeja said that the Congress was spreading lie to stop cross-voting as there was no such provision. “At the most Congress can suspend such MlAs from the party. MlAs have right to choose candidate as per their wish in RS polls irrespective of party line,’’ claimed Jadeja.