Gujarat RS elections: Congress' Ahmed Patel wins fifth term
What's the story
In a dramatic election, violation of rules by two rebel Congress MLAs helped the opposition party save face in Gujarat. The chances of Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, were undeniably altered after former Congress chief whip in Gujarat assembly Balwantsinh Rajput defected to BJP. But with 44 votes, he managed to defeat Rajput who had just 38 votes.
Cancellation
What went wrong for the BJP?
As per rules, a legislator can't show their ballot-paper to anyone, except to their own party representative. The Congress had alleged that two of its MLAs Bhola and Raghav Patel showed their ballot-papers to Amit Shah. Both Congress and BJP reached out to the EC, with the former seeking those two votes be declared void. After a high-voltage drama, the EC declared them invalid.
Implication
What did it mean for the Congress?
The EC's decision meant the required number of votes to win had come down from 45 to 44 in the 182-member assembly. A defeat for the Congress would have been yet another setback for the fledgling party, which recently lost assembly elections in UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. This is also a booster for the party ahead of the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.
Twitter Post
Ahmed Patel thanks party leadership, workers and colleagues
This is not just my victory. It is a defeat of the most blatant use of money power,muscle power and abuse of state machinery
— Ahmed Patel (@ahmedpatel) August 8, 2017
Results
What about the BJP?
BJP candidates Amit Shah and Smriti Irani clinched easy victories with 46 votes each. This will be Shah's first term in Parliament. The party is hopeful Shah's presence in RS will remedy BJP's 'absentee problem', wherein majority of its members don't show up. Meanwhile, CM Vijay Rupani said the BJP would challenge the EC's decision to cancel the votes of the two Congress MLAs.