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Losing BJP candidate Rajput to seek legal intervention, BJP to support his plea
The last chapter in dramatic Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls is yet to be written as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Balwantsinh Rajput planning to take the matters regarding results of the polls to the courts.
“We as a party will support Balwantsinh’s move judiciary over EC’s decision to count votes by two rebel Congressmen as invalid,” Bharat Pandya, BJP spokesperson said.
Though BJP saw its president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani make it to Rajya Sabha with 46 votes each, the rejection of two votes by rebel Congress legislators – Raghavji Patel and Bholabhai Gohel – had turned the tide against Balwantsinh, who ended up bagging 38 first preference votes. The rejection of their votes brought down the need for winning votes from 45 to 44, helping Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Ahmed Patel to scrape through.
The Election Commission of India had declared these two votes as “invalid” after Congress raised objection that the legislators had showed their votes to persons other than official election agent of Congress, flouting the polling norms. Congress cited video recording of the entire incident and cited previous precedents to drive home its point.
Rajput, like Congress, too is now banking on the video footage, which according to him and BJP leaders did not indicate that the rebel Congress legislators had indeed displayed their ballots to anyone but Congress election agent Shaktisinh Gohil.
The BJP on its part stated that it too had taken a similar objection seeking rejection of votes of two Congress legislators - Shailesh Parmar and Mitesh Garasia - on similar lines but the commission did not accept it’s plea.
“If the commission had rejected votes of Parmar and Garasia, the number of votes required for victory would have been 43 and Patel would have got 42 votes. The issue would have then been resolved by counting second preferential votes and Rajput would have emerged victorious, instead of Ahmed Patel,” the senior BJP leader said.
“We as a party will support Balwantsinh’s move judiciary over EC’s decision to count votes by two rebel Congressmen as invalid,” Bharat Pandya, BJP spokesperson said.
Though BJP saw its president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani make it to Rajya Sabha with 46 votes each, the rejection of two votes by rebel Congress legislators – Raghavji Patel and Bholabhai Gohel – had turned the tide against Balwantsinh, who ended up bagging 38 first preference votes. The rejection of their votes brought down the need for winning votes from 45 to 44, helping Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Ahmed Patel to scrape through.
The Election Commission of India had declared these two votes as “invalid” after Congress raised objection that the legislators had showed their votes to persons other than official election agent of Congress, flouting the polling norms. Congress cited video recording of the entire incident and cited previous precedents to drive home its point.
Rajput, like Congress, too is now banking on the video footage, which according to him and BJP leaders did not indicate that the rebel Congress legislators had indeed displayed their ballots to anyone but Congress election agent Shaktisinh Gohil.
The BJP on its part stated that it too had taken a similar objection seeking rejection of votes of two Congress legislators - Shailesh Parmar and Mitesh Garasia - on similar lines but the commission did not accept it’s plea.
“If the commission had rejected votes of Parmar and Garasia, the number of votes required for victory would have been 43 and Patel would have got 42 votes. The issue would have then been resolved by counting second preferential votes and Rajput would have emerged victorious, instead of Ahmed Patel,” the senior BJP leader said.
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(Published 09 August 2017, 15:59 IST)
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