Gujarat Rajya Sabha election LIVE: Congress leader Ahmed Patel retains Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat,
Throughout the day, the Congress has won the victory in the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat, and the BJP has got a big setback. Election Commission has canceled the votes of both rebel legislators while taking action on Congress appeal. The vote of Raghav Bhai Patel and Bholabhai Gohil has been canceled. However, on the other hand, the BJP had demanded that the Commission not consider the Congress’s appeal. After this decision, the counting of votes was going to start, but it has not been so far. After the cancellation of the votes of rebel legislators, there is now a count of 174 votes. Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia said that we are fighting the battle of justice. The BJP is not letting the counting begin. The BJP says that the Election Commission has not taken any action against the Congress MLAs who gave us an application, so that the BJP is not letting the counting start.
Where the Congress welcomed the Election Commission’s decision, the BJP questioned it. Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said that the decision of the commission is disappointing. Make the video public.
Meanwhile, in the meantime, BJP President Amit Shah reached the counting center in Gandhinagar. Amit Shah was sitting outside the counting center with senior party leaders. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was also present with him.
Gujarat has three vacancies and the ruling BJP has fielded Amit Shah, Smriti Irani and Congress turncoat Balwantsinh Rajput. Of them, two are set to win, given the BJP’s strength of 122 lawmakers in the assembly.
For the third seat, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Patel is up against Rajput.
atch live updates on the election here:
1.42am: Congress leader Ahmed Patel retains Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat, reports ANI news.
1.38am: Counting for Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls begins in Gandhinagar. Gujarat information department began around 1.35 am.
1.30am: Counting hasn’t started yet. No communication by the authorities on why counting is stalled.
1.30am: Counting hasn’t started yet. No communication by the authorities on why counting is stalled.
1am: Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia alleges that BJP has stalled the counting.
12.45pm: I appreciate the order of the Election Commission. I salute my MLAs and rank and file of the Congress Party, Ahmed Patel tells ANI
12.05am: If required we will take legal action: Gujarat deputy CM Nitinbhai Patel on EC verdict declaring vote of 2 Cong MLAs as invalid.
11.55pm: The EC order said that while going through the video footage of the polling process, it found that the two had violated the secrecy of ballots.
11.50pm: Truth has emerged victorious in spite of BJP using all the power. Ahmed Patel will win: RS Surjewala
11:30 pm: Election Commission declares votes of Congress MLAs Bhola Bhai Gohil and Raghav Bhai Patel as invalid. Voting to begin soon.
10:45 pm: Election Commission will convey order on counting of votes to Returning Officer at 11:30 pm.
10:25 pm: “Why is BJP bringing an army of defence/finance minister, power minister, petroleum minister and commerce minister? It means they want to suppress truth,” Surjewala questions.
10:12 pm: “With all respect, want to tell BJP that this is the war of truth and lies cannot prevail on Gandhi Ji’s land,” says Congress spokesperson RS Surjewala.
9:57 pm: EC officials turn away both Congress and BJP delegations for the third time.
9:55 pm: BJP delegation leaves Election Commission office.
9.45pm: We want electoral process to be completed and counting to begin: Nirmala Sitharaman at EC.
9:25 pm: BJP delegation also reaches Election Commission for the third time.
9:05 pm: Congress leaders including RPN Singh and Randeep Surjewala leave for Election Commission office for the third time.
9:05 pm: TV reports say full bench meeting of Election Commission underway.
9:03 pm: MP Naqvi says BJP has appealed the EC to start the counting process immediately because free and fair elections took place.
8:25 pm: Congress MP P Chidambaram says, “There is enough evidence that the ballot paper were seen by people other than those authorized.”
“EC must reject these ballot papers as it did in Haryana in June 2016,” Chidambaram says, reports ANI.
8:10 pm: BJP delegation comprising Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and RS Prasad arrive at Election Commission again.
7: 55 pm: BJP demands immediate counting of votes and announcement of results, says Congress is reacting out of fear of defeat.
7:50 pm: One of our MLAs had mistakenly showed his vote in Haryana and his vote was rejected, same was done in Gujarat so their votes should be rejected: Congress MP Anand Sharma.
7: 42 pm: Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says they requested EC to reject Congress’ plea as once votes are cast, nothing can be done and the process was fair.
“Since morning Congress has been claiming win, now with defeat staring in their face they are making desperate attempts,” Prasad says.
7:40 pm: “I’m very much confident let counting take place,” says Ahmed Patel.
7:37 pm: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says Congress allegations are “baseless” and the party didn’t protest in the morning.
Congress’ Ahmed Patel says Congress filed complaint with the Returning Officer soon after two rebel party MLAs allegedly showed their vote to BJP leaders.
“Immediately a complaint was filed. The Returning Officer did not take any action, so we moved the Election Commission,” Patel says.
7:29 pm: Congress leaders including Anand Sharma and Randeep Surjewala will go to the Election Commission again shortly, reports ANI.
7:19 pm: BJP delegation including Union ministers MA Naqvi, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan leave for Election Commission office.
7:13 pm: Congress MLA Arjun Modhwadia says the party raised objection to cross-voting at 9.30 am but EC has not responded. He says no response by EC till now shows that they are being put under pressure.
“We requested that Congress, BJP and presiding officer should jointly watch video, but BJP objected, waiting for EC decision,” says Modhwadia.
7:10 pm: Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar, Nirmala Sitharaman reach Election Commission.
7:00 pm: Election Commission meet underway now over Congress complaint, EC’s decision to come today, reports ANI sources.
6:58 pm: Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel says, “Rejecting Congress’ claim for cancellation of two votes, the state election commission has submitted report to the ECI and counting will begin after its nod.”
6:32 pm: A copy of Congress complaint to EC seeking to invalidate two votes of its MLAs, who claimed to have voted for the BJP nominees .
