Gujarat Congress MLAs Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Zala on Friday cross-voted in the bye-polls to two Rajya Sabha seats, ANI reported. The Congress’ observer for the bye-polls, Ashwin Kotwal, told the news agency that the two leaders had not voted for the party’s candidates as expected. Polling was conducted from 9 am to 4 pm.
The Bharatiya Janata Party fielded External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Juglaji Thakor in the elections while the Congress’ nominees were Chandrika Chudasama and Gaurav Pandya. The bye-polls were necessitated after Union ministers Amit Shah and Smriti Irani were elected to the Lok Sabha in May.
The night before the elections, Congress MLAs from Gujarat held a legislative party meeting at a resort in Banaskantha district. Around 65 lawmakers were moved to the resort on Wednesday night to avoid any attempts at horse-trading by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reported.
The Congress leaders were earlier told that they would be taken to Mount Abu in Rajasthan, however, the location was later changed to Balaram Palace Resort on the Abu-Palanpur highway in Banaskantha district, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Paresh Dhanani said. Of the 71 Congress MLAs, 65 were moved to the resort.
Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said Thakor and Zala had skipped the meeting while four other legislators had taken prior permission to be absent. “We have shifted our MLAs as a precautionary measure and as a part of our strategy,” PTI quoted Doshi as saying. “We all know the BJP had indulged in unethical practices and misused the machinery in the 2017 Rajya Sabha elections. The BJP can go up to any extent to acquire power. That is why we had kept our MLAs at one place to hold a day-long workshop. They will return tomorrow [Friday] morning, when voting would take place [in Gandhingar].”
Senior state party leader Arjun Modhwadia also confirmed that they were taken to the resort “to avoid horse trading and for the political training of our MLAs”. Modhwadia also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of engaging in horse-trading. “Gujarat is a political laboratory of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi,” the news agency quoted him as saying. “Most incidents of horse-trading are reported here. They have done it two times in the past. Many money bags were found earlier and there is a possibility of it happening this time too.”
The Congress had said on Wednesday that it was moving its lawmakers to a “safe location”. The decision was taken as at least six MLAs had defected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the General Elections.
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