Ahmed Patel on sticky wicket in RS contest

BJP works out strategy to grab third seat in Gujarat

Gujarat is all set to witness one of the most exciting Rajya Sabha elections in its history on Tuesday.

The stage is ready for a fierce battle between the country’s principal political parties – the  BJP and Congress.

As many as 176 members of the 182-strong Gujarat Assembly would vote to elect three representatives to the Upper House of Parliament and they have four candidates to choose from.

While the Opposition Congress seeks to elect Ahmed Patel, political secretary to party president Sonia Gandhi, the BJP has party president Amit Shah, Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Irani and former chief whip of the Congress in Gujarat Assembly-turned-BJP man Balwantsinh Rajput in the fray.

Each candidate requires 45 first preference votes to win. The BJP, with a strength of 122, would find it easy to send two of its candidates to the Rajya Sabha.

The fight is for the third seat, as the BJP fielded Rajput to take on mighty Ahmed Patel. Though Rajput did not have sufficient numbers, recent trouble within the Congress has raised hopes of Rajput that he may be able to prevent Patel from reaching the Upper House for his fifth term in a row.

The Congress has seen the number of its legislators in the Assembly deplete from 57 to 51, with six quitting the party by July 28 and three of them joining the BJP. The Congress moved 44 of its legislators to party-ruled Karnataka for about 10 days to prevent any further “poaching”. These legislators were brought back home only on Monday, but kept at Nijanand Resort near Anand, 80 km from state capital Gandhinagar, the venue of voting. The Congress, led by Ahmed Patel, held a series of meetings with these legislators on Monday evening in a bid to ensure none of them resorted to cross-voting, cast invalid vote or use NOTA (None of the above) option.

Despite issuing a whip and threats of strict action, the worry for the Congress is that it does not know how rebel leader Shankarsinh Vaghela, who quit the party recently, would influence the seven legislators loyal to him on voting day. The other headache is of netting votes of its alliance partner NCP, which has two legislators in the state Assembly, and that of the lone JD(U) legislator from tribal-dominated Jhagadia constituency in South Gujarat, Chhotubhai Vasava, who have kept everyone guessing.

In fact, Vasava had boycotted Presidential polls to highlight issues of “tribals” by not voting. A political heavyweight in his region, Vasava is unlikely to toe party line while voting this time too.

“I am confident of (support from) all my (44) legislators and have spoken to Sharad Pawarji and I am sure they will help Congress,” Ahmed Patel said.

“We will get votes of NCP, JD(U) and Vaghela too,” he added.

However, Patel got a jolt when NCP’s Kutiyana legislator Kandhal Jadeja on Monday evening said that he and his party colleague Jayant Bosky have been asked to vote for the BJP candidate. “We have been instructed to vote for Balwantsinh Rajput,” Jadeja said. However, Congress leader Virji Thumar said that they have enough votes and the votes of alliance partners were additional votes.

Meanwhile, Patel extended an olive branch to Vaghela saying that the party would address his grievances after Rajya Sabha voting.

He also said that Congress was trying to get votes of seven MLAs who had not joined the 44 Congress legislators hosted in Bengaluru.