Rajya Sabha polls: Congress starts shifting its Gujarat MLAs

As speculated, over a dozen Congress MLAs on Saturday left Ahmedabad for Jaipur fearing horse-trading ahead of Rajya Sabha polls. Sources said that these MLAs will be leaving Gujarat to a Congress-ruled state in the next week in small groups to keep them away from BJP's allurement.

"About 15 MLAs left today to Jaipur in a flight. Another group left by road. By the end of this week, about 50 to 55 MLAs will be shifted to Jaipur. The rest of us will be here since the Assembly session is going on. We decided this in apprehension of BJP leaders who are trying to lure our MLAs with money and post," said a senior Congress MLA requesting anonymity.

For the four Rajya Sabha seats, BJP has fielded three candidates despite not having required numbers. It needs at least 8 eight seats from Congress or other small parties to win it. For this purpose, the BJP is alleged to have been approaching Congress leaders with offers of money and post.

This is the third time in a row during the Rajya Sabha polls when the BJP is trying to break Congress to win polls. In 2017, the BJP managed several Congress rebels to cross-vote against their senior leader Ahmed Patel who managed to win after a dramatic turn of events. In 2019 polls, BJP broke Congress further when one of the most popular backward caste leaders Alpesh Thakor too cross voted and later joined BJP.

Congress has fielded senior leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki while the BJP nominated lawyer Abhay Bharadwaj, tribal leader Ramila Bara and Congress turncoat Narhari Amin. The BJP can win only two seats as per their numbers in the state Assembly and for the third seat, it needs cross-voting from Congress MLAs. On the other hand, Congress can win the two seats if it manages to keep the BJP at bay.