EC becomes battleground for Congress, BJP

A battle of nerves was played out at the Election Commission headquarters here Tuesday night with both Congress and the BJP sending high-powered delegations to present arguments over the cliffhanger Rajya Sabha poll involving Ahmed Patel.
 
While the BJP delegation was led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and four Union Ministers, the Congress top guns P Chidambaram and Anand Sharma presented their arguments seeking cancellation of votes of its two MLAs who had violated the election rules by disclosing their votes to persons other than authorised by the party.
 
The EC met the Congress and BJP delegations twice but turned them back when they came for the third time to present their respective view points. The Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat have turned into a high-stakes battle for the Congress and the BJP with the latter pulling out all stops to ensure the defeat of Patel, the political secretary to Sonia Gandhi.
 
Left with 31 surplus votes after ensuring the election of BJP President Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani, the BJP decided to go for the kill by fielding a third candidate Balwantsinh Rajput, who till last month was with the Congress.
 
As the counting votes began in Ahmedabad, the Congress contended that two of its MLAs – Bholabhai Gohil and Raghavjibhai Patel – had violated election rules by disclosing to the BJP prior to exercising their franchise.
 
The BJP countered the Congress submission by arguing before the EC that the Congress had woken up late and panicked after staring at the defeat Patel who is seeking a fifth term in the Rajya Sabha.
 
The battle soon shifted to Delhi with Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and R P N Singh approaching the Election Commission to present its case and seeking urgent intervention.
 
Within an hour, a BJP delegation led by Jaitley, Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad, Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary
 
Jaitley impressed up on the EC that the polling process can be annulled only by the Court on hearing a petition by the aggrieved party challenging the Rajya Sabha polls.
 
The Congress soon followed up with its own high-powered delegation comprising Chidambaram, Sharma, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and party veteran Oscar Fernandes.
 
The senior leaders were attending the meeting of the Congress Working Committee, where party president Sonia Gandhi urged them to fight the “all-powerful” adversary.

“There is enough evidence that the ballot paper were seen by people other than those authorized. We have impressed upon the EC that those two ballot papers must be rejected,” Chidambaram told reporters here after meeting the EC.
 
The BJP leaders made a dash to the EC once again, claiming that the top Congress leaders were pressurising the poll authority. Soon after Congress leaders Surjewala and R P N Singh were back knocking on the doors of the EC, but were turned back.
 
The BJP also did an encore, but the EC stood its ground and refused to meet the delegation for the third time.