The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to win two Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, elections to which were held on Friday, with their candidates securing 105 votes each as against the opposition Congress candidates getting 70 votes each.
The official result of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and OBC leader Jugal Thakor's victory will be announced by the Central Election Commission.
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The Congress had fielded Gujarat women's wing leader Chandrika Chudasama and Gaurav Pandya, a close aide of senior party leader Ahmed Patel.
The seats had fallen vacant following the resignations of Amit Shah and Smriti Irani as they won the Lok Sabha elections.
In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the BJP has a strength of 100, the Congress 71, the Bharatiya Tribal Party 2, the Nationalist Congress Party 1 and independent 1. Four seats fell vacant following the resignations of BJP lawmakers after they were elected to Lok Sabha. Three MLAs stand disqualified for various reasons.
In addition to the 100 votes of its MLAs, the BJP also got two votes of the BTP MLAs and one vote of NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja, son of late Godmother Santokben Jadeja. It also got votes of Congress rebel MLAs Alpesh Thakore and Dhavalsinh Jhala. The Congress had issued a whip to all its MLAs, including Thakore and Jhala.
The Congress candidates got 70 votes each—69 of their MLAs and one of independent MLA from Vadgam Jignesh Mevani.
Fearing cross voting, the Congress had packed off its MLAs to a luxury resort in Palanpur, North Gujarat. They returned just before the voting began.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected a plea by the Congress to have joint voting for the two seats. The Election Commission had declared that polling would be conducted on the same day, but voting would be separate.
