In a Rajya Sabha election that will be forever remembered for its political significance and high drama, both the Congress and the BJP stalled the counting of votes till well after midnight as the entire country watched the intense political drama as a one-day cricket thriller. However, the counting resumed much after midnight and the Congress claimed that Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel has retained his RS seat with 44 votes. Sources added that both Amit Shah and Smriti Irani too won the RS polls. Till going to Press, EC was yet to make formal announcement.
Patel was locked in a do-or-die battle against his BJP rival Balwantsinh Rajput.
Patel managed his victory after the Election Commission of India (ECI) ruled in favour of the Congress’ contention that votes of its two rebel MlAs be cancelled because they had shown their marked ballot paper to BJP chief Amit Shah. Also, a BJP MlA admitted to have cross-voted in favour of the Congress.
The EC verdict came at 11.30 pm, but the BJP then stalled the counting for an hour demanding that the video footage of the two rebel Congress MlAs showing their marked ballots to its polling agents should be made public.
The party is expected to approach the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the EC’s decision.
After the EC’s verdict, it was clear that Patel was confident of getting 46 votes that included 43 from the Congress, one out of the two NCP votes, and that of the lone JD(U) MlA besides a rebel BJP lawmaker.
After meeting three delegations each of the BJP and the Congress over five hours and examining the video of the voting process, the EC said the rule was very clear that the elector has to show his ballot paper only to the authorised representative of his party “and to no one else”.
“The commission has viewed the video recording of the votes cast by the said two MlAs and it has been observed that the said two electors violated the voting procedure and secrecy of the ballot papers cast by them when they exercised their right to vote,” the commission’s order signed by Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti and Election Commissioner OP Rawat said.
The battle reached the ECI after the Chief Electoral Officer in Gujarat was forced to halt the counting of votes following a demand from the Congress for the cancellation of votes of two rebel MlAs.
A few minutes before the beginning of counting, senior Congress leader and the party’s polling agent Shaktisinh Gohil demanded to watch the footage of the voting process of two rebel MlAs of his own party — Raghavji Patel and Bholabhai Gohil.
Shaktisinh Gohil claimed that both these legislators displayed their ballot paper to the BJP’s polling agent. He went on to say that if the decision wouldn’t come in favour of his party, he would take the issue to the apex court.
Objecting to the Congress’ demand, Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani said that fearing defeat the Congress had taken up this issue hours after the MlAs cast their votes. Countering the argument of the saffron party, senior Congress leader Arjun Modhvadia said that Gohil had taken up the issue in the morning but the returning officer didn’t pay attention. The imbroglio got entangled to such an extent that both the parties took the issue to the ECI.
The polling started at 9 am and ended around 2 pm with all the 176 eligible voters exercising their franchise.
77-year-old Shankersinh Vaghela gave the first shock to the Congress by giving his vote to Balwantsinh Rajput of the BJP.
“There is no chance for the Congress. I didn’t want to waste my vote. Hence I decided not to vote for my dear friend Ahmedbhai,’’ said Vaghela, who had promised his support to Patel despite quitting the Congress Party last month.
Apart from Vaghela, his MlA son Mahendrasinh, his close aides and Jamnagar Rural and Jamnagar West legislators Raghavji Patel and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja voted against their party’s whip. Three more MlAs from Vaghela’s camp CK Raulji,
Anand Chaudhary and Bholabhai Gohil too voted for the BJP.
There was more drama in store as one of the two NCP legislators Jayant Patel alias Bosky claimed that he voted for Patel. However, his party colleague in the State Assembly Kandhal Jadeja cast his vote for the BJP. According to Jadeja, he followed his leader Praful Patel’s whip.
Despite Nitish Kumar’s alliance with the saffron brigade in Bihar, his party’s only MlA Chhotu Vasava voted for Patel. The JD(U) legislator said that he voted for the country and was against the Bihar CM’s decision to form a Government with the support of the BJP.
Reacting to JD(U) leader KC Tyagi’s claim that Vasav had voted for the BJP, the JD(U) MlA said, “He doesn’t know who is Tyagi and he cast his vote for Patel.”
Interestingly, after casting his vote BJP’s rebel MlA Nalin Kotadia said he was given an assurance by the party’s leadership to resolve issues related to Patidars and hence he voted for the saffron party’s candidate. However later in the evening he changed his statement saying that he voted for the Congress candidate!
Around 11 am the 44 Congress MlAs arrived in a bus from a resort in Anand town. Out of this flock, Sanand MlA Karamsibhai Patel gave another jolt to his party by voting against his party’s candidate Ahmed Patel.
Under tremendous pressure over resignations of its six MlAs from the legislative Assembly, the Congress Party had shifted 44 legislators to a luxurious resort in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru on July 28 to curb more resignations. These resignations reduced the Congress’ strength in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly from 57 to 51.