Gandhinagar: With just a day to go for the crucial Rajya Sabha elections for the four seats in Gujarat on June 19, Gujarat Congress MLAs have turned incommunicado as MLAs were instructed to switch off their phones for the next two days till the elections were held.
Congress has shifted their MLAs to Ummed Hotel in Ahemadabad and Rajya Sabha Member Rajeev Shankarrao Satav, who is the in-charge for Gujarat, chaired a meeting with the legislators to discuss the latest political developments and mock polling. Talks are round that the party leaders have gone incommunicado and they will be deported to Gandhinagar tomorrow morning before the polls commence.
Training sessions were held for the MLAs, on how to vote for their candidates on June 19. The Congress has, on top of Rajiv Satavhas appointed two more in-charges -- B.K Hariprasad and Rajni Tai Patil who will be arriving at the hotel on Wednesday night.
Gujarat: Ahead of Rajya Sabha polls, Congress legislators go incommunicado A meeting was held at the Uma Samaj Bhavan, at Umiya temple in Gandhinagar for the BJP MLAs, chaired by the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to plan and train its MLAs for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress party on Wednesday, claimed victory of their candidates, despite equations suggesting otherwise.
Congress has time and again alleged BJP of horse-trading and poaching of MLAs and as a matter of precaution has shifted their legislators to plush property.
READ: RS polls: Gujarat Cong shifts 20 of 65 MLAs to five-star hotel
The BJP has fielded three candidates while the Congress has fielded two candidates for the 4 Rajya Sabha seats in the state.
The Covid-19 situation has forced the Election Commission to reschedule the date of the elections, which was earlier scheduled on March 26.
There aren't enough votes of MLAs for both the parties if the third BJP candidate or the second Congress candidate has to win. Despite that both the parties on Wednesday claimed victory.
The BJP has fielded Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin while the Congress has nominated Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki.
In the 182-member state assembly, the BJP has 103 seats while the opposition Congress has only 65, with eight of its MLAs resigning during the last 3-4 months. Prior to the earlier scheduled poll date of March 26, five Congress MLAs had resigned, while 3 of the party's legislators resigned in the first week of June.
Looking at the current strength, the BJP has enough votes to win two seats and Congress one seat, as according to the new situation, each Rajya Sabha candidate needs 35 votes. The BJP is short of two votes which it is banking on getting it from the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which is 2 and 1 seats in the state assembly respectively.
While the Congress is 4 votes short, even if a vote from the lone independent MLA Jignesh Mevani is counted in its favour. (With inputs from IANS)
READ:How Gandhinagar became a Covid-19 hotspot!
