Key Gujarat RS poll goes down to wire

VOTING TODAY BJP ‘confident’ of winning all 3 seats, Cong nominee Ahmed Patel says ‘full faith’ MLAs will stand by him

The Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat on Tuesday, which will end the fortnight-long political drama around senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s candidature, seemed to be going down to the wire.

Patel remained confident of victory, saying on Monday that the “numbers will be surprising” when the results are declared.

Gujarat has three vacancies and the ruling BJP has fielded party chief Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and Congress turncoat Balwantsinh Rajput. Of them, two are set to win, given the BJP’s strength of 122 lawmakers in the assembly.

For the third seat, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Patel is up against Rajput.

Patel needs the support of 45 MLAs after six Congress lawmakers resigned amid horsetrading charges against the BJP, bringing the party’s strength in the assembly to 51.

The party is banking on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Janata Dal (United) lawmakers to support Patel, who is seeking re-election to the Upper House of Parliament.

But the calculations could change as one of the two NCP legislators — Kandhal Jadeja, the MLA for Kutiyana — said on Monday evening he was asked by his party leadership to vote for Rajput. The election has become a battle of prestige for the BJP and Congress as the ruling party is putting its might to ensure Patel’s defeat.

Besieged by a spate of defections, the Congress flew 44 of its MLAs to a resort near Bengaluru in July to keep its flock together before the crucial vote.

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