Gujarat Rajya Sabha Election: Congress demands cancellation of two party votes, says MLAs showed ballot to BJP leaders

**New Delhi:**Counting of votes for the three Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat was delayed as the Congress moved the Election Commission seeking that votes of two party MLAs, who claimed to have voted for the BJP nominees, be declared invalid. The counting of votes was scheduled to start at 5 pm. The Congress claimed the two MLAs — Raghavji Patel and Bhola Gohil — belonging to Shankarsinh Vaghela group showed their ballots to the party’s authorised agent as well as to the BJP’s agent. [caption id=“attachment_3886795” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Talking to reporters after petitioning the Election Commission, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said the two MLAs had shown their votes after marking them to BJP president Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and former Congress MLA who switched to BJP Balwantsinh Rajput — all candidates in the election — against the conduct of election rules. “The votes cannot be accepted at any cost. They should be rejected. The entire event has been recorded in video. We have requested the Election Commission to reject the votes,” Surjewala said. He cited the example of a Rajya Sabha election in which he claimed that the vote of the Congress Legislature Party leader was cancelled on similar grounds. Party leader RPN Singh, who was also part of the Congress delegation, said the Election Commission had told them that they will seek a report from the returning officer. “We have demanded that the election should be stopped. The Election Commission should ask for the video and take a decision after examining it,” he said. “We have faith that the Election Commission will act to save democracy,” he added.   “They had voted for the BJP. After showing their ballot to me, they also flashed their ballot to the side where (BJP national president and the party candidate) Amit Shah was sitting, and there is a video of this,” senior party leader Shaktisinh Gohil said. “… presiding officer DM Patel is under pressure. We will ask for an official copy of the video and will even move Supreme Court if we find that the video is tampered with,” he added. Gohil said counting of votes cannot start until the presiding officer takes action on the objection raised by the Congress. Reacting to the charges, state BJP president Jitu Vaghani said such a demand reflects the opposition party’s frustration as the Congress knows that its defeat is imminent. “Congress’ internal scuffle has come to the fore, and such a demand (to show video and invalidate votes of the two MLAs) shows their frustration. They are opposing counting of votes because they are set to lose,” he told reporters. “Such an objection is only because of their frustration. Talking about video after the vote is cast makes no sense. However, the returning officer has the power to take the decision. We have written to the returning officer to take a decision on his own. They should not blame the BJP. Lack of trust on election officer is not right,” the BJP leader said. Congress Rajya Sabha nominee Ahmed Patel is tightly placed as he requires 45 votes to win in a situation where several members of his party have either defected to the ruling BJP or cross-voted to the BJP nominees. Patel’s immediate opponent is Balwantsinh Rajput, who before joining the BJP was the Congress’ chief whip in the Assembly. With inputs from PTI and IANS