The Congress has accused the BJP of trying to split its ranks.
Highlights
- To win a seat in Gujarat, any candidate needs at least 34 MLAs
- The BJP can easily win two of the four Rajya Sabha seats
- The Congress has accused the BJP of trying to split its ranks
The resignation of six MLAs has delivered a huge blow to the Congress ahead of the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls and has making it difficult for the party to win more than one of the state's four seats.
The BJP, with 103 members in the 182-member state assembly, can easily win two of the four Rajya Sabha seats. The party has fielded a third candidate, Narhari Amin, a former Congress leader, and it is likely to be a close fight.
To win a Rajya Sabha seat, any candidate in Gujarat needs at least 34 MLAs.
The Congress will find it tough to win a second seat after two MLAs, Jitu Chaudhary and Akshay Patel, resigned today. The party now has 66 members and can comfortably win only one Rajya Sabha seat. Four MLAs had resigned in March.
Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi said Akshay Patel and Jitu Chaudhary met him on Wednesday evening. "I have accepted their resignations. They now cease to be the legislators," the Speaker told reporters today.
Of the four Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat due for polls, the BJP has three and the Congress, one. Besides Narhari Amin, the BJP has fielded Abhay Bhardwaj and Ramilaben Bara. The Congress has named Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki for the polls.
The Congress has to decide who will be its first preference candidate because that person is most likely to win.
To complicate matters, its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has a lone member, Kandhal Jadeja, and it is not clear which way he will vote. The NCP has replaced its Gujarat chief Shankarsinh Vaghela, who was reportedly dead opposed to the party leadership's reported plan to support the BJP.
The Congress has accused the BJP of trying to split its ranks using money.
"Gujarat has been one of the worst mismanaged states in dealing with the coronavirus crisis and instead of focusing on health infrastructure and helping people , they are focusing on buying MLAs," said senior Congress leader Rajiv Satav to NDTV.
Narhari Amin denied the allegations and said more were likely to quit the Congress and they were upset.
"I believe that some more Congress MLAs would also resign in near future. They are leaving Congress because they are unhappy with the party leadership," Mr Amin said.
The elections were to be held on March 26 but were postponed because of the coronavirus crisis and the nationwide lockdown.
The Congress faced a similar crisis in 2017, when its senior leader Ahmed Patel fought hard to retain his Rajya Sabha seat after 13 MLAs resigned. Mr Patel won that election by a whisker. He needed 44 votes to win and he got 44 in a win aided by the Election Commission holding the votes of two Congress rebels invalid for showing their ballot papers to the BJP's election agent.
