AHMEDABAD, MARCH 14
To prevent horse-trading by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rajya Sabha polls, the Gujarat Congress has started shiftins a majority of its legislators to some neighbouring state.
Around a dozen, Congress MLAs arrived at Ahmedabad airport to board a flight, with MLAs themselves saying they have no clue where they are going.
MLAs like Himmatsinh Patel, Ganiben Thakor, Chandanji Thakor, Rutvik Makwana, Bharatji Thakor, Lakha Bharwad, Nathabhai Patel, Ajitsinh Chauhan, Harshad Ribadiya, Chirag Kalariya, and others were seen at Ahmedabad airport, as they arrived to board flights to unknown destinations.
Sources said the MLAs will go in separate groups to Congress-ruled states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Talking to the media, MLA Baldevji Thakor said, “For now I am going to Delhi. From Delhi, the party will decide where I will go. We have to go to three to four different places.” The Congress’ move is to thwart any attempt at cross-voting.
It has fielded senior state leader Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki while the BJP has fielded Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramila Bara, and Narhari Amin.
As per seat strength in the Assembly, the BJP can win two seats, while it will require cross-voting from Congress MLAs to win the third seat, as this would require 111 votes.
In the 182-seat Assembly, BJP has 103 seats, Congress 73, while two seats are with the Bharatiya Tribal party and the Nationalist Congress Party has one. There is one Independent legislator as well.
The Congress will need 74 votes to win two seats. Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani on Friday extended his support to the Congress.
“My vote will go to the Congress,” Mevani said after meeting the two Congress candidates.
The BJP, with 103 MLAs, is banking on the support of two MLAs of the BTP, led by tribal leader Chotu Vasava, and one of the NCP, but will still need another five votes.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, “As part of the strategy, we are shifting some of our MLAs so that the BJP is not able to use state machinery to poach them.”
He, however, did not specify the exact number of MLAs or the destination where they will be taken.
The BJP is banking on the internal in-fighting the Congress is experiencing, as it was even evident from the announcement of their candidates for Rajya Sabha. Rajiv Shukla, after being named to be the candidate from Gujarat, was dropped to be replaced by Bharatsinh Solanki.
According to sources in Congress, even now many MLAs and leaders have shown a dissent against the high command for not fielding a Patidar face to represent in the Rajya Sabha. Looking at all of this, the confidence of BJP cannot be ruled out.
Earlier there were talks of shifting them to a resort in Rajasthan, where the party is in power. But the Rajasthan Congress is already burdened with the flock of MLAs recently arrived from Madhya Pradesh where a similar situation is created with the deflection of Jyotiraditya Scindia.
So now, the party feels that their MLAs should be shifted to Chhattisgarh or Maharashtra. There is also another problem. Right now the budget session of Gujarat state assembly is midway, so the legislators’ presence in the house is also required.
According to sources it has come to be known that a week prior to the Rajya Sabha elections, a majority of Congress MLAs will be taken to some resort in Chhattisgarh or Maharashtra and only 15 to 20 senior legislators, which are in the confidence of the high command will attend the state assembly.
