NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, JUNE 19
Ruling BJP’s gamble of fielding third candidate in the RS polls has paid off. Three BJP candidates along with Congress’s Shaktisinh Gohil were declared winners of the election to four Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, held on Friday.
गुजरात से राज्यसभा सदस्य निर्वाचित होने पर श्री अभय भारद्वाज जी, श्रीमती @ramilabara जी और श्री @narhari_amin जी को सहृदय बधाई एवं यशस्वी कार्यकाल की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँ।#RajyaSabhaPolls #RajyasabhaElection2020 pic.twitter.com/mWH57G8qfR
— Jitu Vaghani (मोदी का परिवार) (@jitu_vaghani) June 19, 2020
The counting was delayed due to objections raised by the Congress which demanded that votes cast by two BJP MLAs – Bhupendra Singh Chudasama and Kesri Singh – be invalidated. Chudasama’s status as an MLA is still being deliberated on in Supreme Court of India. While Kesri Singh furnished a certificate of being unwell in spite of being in good health.
""જનમત કચડાયો, અહંકારની જીત""
પદની લાલચ, પૈસાની તાકાત અને સત્તાના
દુર ઉપયોગ થકી સંવૈધાનિક મૂલ્યો કચડીને
સત્તા મેળવવામા ભાજપ સફળ થયુ છે,આજે ૮-૮ માથાં વઢાયા પછીએ લોકશાહીને
બચાવવા માટે '૬૫' ધડ લડ્યા એનુ ગૌરવ છે,ધડ વગરના '૧' મુંગટનો આભાર અને સૌ
વિજેતા ઉમેદવારોને અંતરથી અભિનંદન.!— Paresh Dhanani (@paresh_dhanani) June 19, 2020
The Election Commission of India rejected the demand, upholding the report given by the election observer.
“Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin of the BJP have won besides Shaktisinh Gohil of the Congress,” said Additional Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat Ashok Manek.
Former Union minister Bharatsinh Solanki, a second candidate fielded by the Congress, lost.
“Our candidates Abhay Bharadwaj and Ramilaben Bara got 36 votes each and third candidate Amin got 32 votes in first preference and after addition of second preference votes his total came to 35.98 votes,” said Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.
“Gohil of Congress got 36 votes and Solanki got 30 votes plus some 1.99-second preference votes which added up to 31.9. So Solanki lost,” Patel said.
No votes were invalidated by the Election Commission, the BJP leader added.
Voting began at 9 am and continued till 4 pm. 170 out of 172 MLAs exercised their franchise. Two Bharatiya Tribal Party MLAs did not turn up to vote.
