GANDHINAGAR, MARCH 13
Close on the heels of staging a toppling game in Madhya Pradesh, three candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and two from the Congress on Friday filed nominations for four Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat.
The Rajya Sabha election will be held on March 26.
The terms of the sitting members are ending on April 9.
Commenting on this strategy, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel expressed confidence that all their three candidates will win easily. Rupani claimed that the BJP has enough strength for three candidates to win. “It is the Congress that has doubts,” he remarked.
The Congress has nominated Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki as their candidates while the BJP fielded Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bara, and Narhari Amin.
After filing the nomination at around 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Bharatsinh told the media, “We are confident of winning both the seats. The BJP tactics are to misguide people and accordingly they are spreading that there will be defection and cross-voting. But nothing of such sort will happen, as people know about the BJP very well.”
After the BJP candidates filed their nominations, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said, “We are confident that all our candidates will win and we have the support of all the 182 members of the House.”
“People have seen the infighting in Congress. Even yesterday everybody saw how Rajiv Shukla was selected for Gujarat but owing to the pressure within the party they had to withheld and change the nomination. Congress is destroying itself and people are trusting the BJP. We will win with a good majority,” said BJP candidate Narhari Amin.
“As a woman member, I will always think about the welfare of women and also from the community I come from and also the public of Gujarat. I am sure of winning this election,” said Ramilaben Bara.
In the 182-member Assembly, both the BJP and the Congress have enough strength to ensure the victory of two candidates each. One candidate needs 37 votes to win. While the Congress has 73 MLAs, it is banking on the vote of independent MLA Jignesh Mevani.
The grand old party is also banking on the support of the Bharatiya Tribal Party, which has two MLAs, and the one legislator of the NCP.
The BJP, on the other hand, has 103 MLAs and if it wants to ensure the victory of all its three candidates, then it will have to seek votes of eight more MLAs.
There is a legal tangle on two Assembly seats.
Now, with the BJP fielding Amin as a third candidate, the Congress will have to make all efforts to keep its flock together. Amin still has well-wishers in the Congress and he may even bank on cross-voting by few Patidar MLAs from the Congress.
Amin made it clear that he would seek votes from all the Congress MLAs. “It is my duty to seek votes and I will do that,” he said.
If the BJP wants all its three candidates to win, it will require five more votes. This will be in addition to the votes from BTP and NCP, which it is banking on. Mevani is believed to have assured the Congress of his vote.
