Elections to fill 24 Rajya Sabha seats will take place on June 19.
Ahmedabad:
After the resignation of three deputies before the June 19 elections in Rajya Sabha, the Gujarat Congress on Saturday moved several of its legislators to resorts and bungalows near their constituencies in order to prevent any offer of “poaching”, said a party leader.
With the resignation of Akshay Patel and Jitu Chaudhary on June 3 and that of Brijesh Merja on June 5, the membership of the Congress in the house of 182 members was reduced to 65.
However, the effective membership of the House is currently 172, with ten seats currently vacant – two due to legal proceedings and the remainder due to resignations.
While several deputies from northern Gujarat have been transferred to a complex near Ambaji in the Banaskantha district, those from southern and central Gujarat have been transferred to private bungalows in Anand, congressional spokesperson said Manish Doshi, adding that legislators from the Saurashtra region have been transferred to a complex in Rajkot.
“The deputies were invited by the high command of the party to arrive at the resorts of Anand, Ambaji and Rajkot after having completed their work on Saturday. They will arrive in these centers according to the location by area of their constituencies. Many of them have others coming soon, “he said.
He said senior congressional leaders will interact with MPs and discuss the current situation and the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
Doshi said deputies could continue to stay in the resorts until election day for four Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat on June 19.
Earlier, Congress had moved its deputies to a resort in Jaipur in March of this year after five of them had resigned before the March 26 upper house elections. The surveys have been postponed due to the coronavirus lockout.
With a force reduced to 65, Congress may find it difficult to win two Rajya Sabha seats for which it has aligned senior leaders Bharatsinh Solanki and Shaktisinh Gohil.
A party deputy said that Solanki remained the second preference after Gohil and that they would vote according to the party’s directive on June 19.
“The 65 deputies are united. There is no internal factionalism in Congress. Bharatsinh (Solanki) himself knows that he is the second candidate. This is the party’s decision. We will vote in accordance with the directive of the State party unity President Amitbhai Chavda also announced that Shaktisinh was our main candidate, “said MP Vikram Madam.
Congress leaders have accused the ruling BJP of adopting means such as “blackmail, threatening, or using money to poach its deputies.”
“In each case, we can see how these people in power offer money or positions or blackmail members to resign. It is clear that these (three) members were bought with thousands of rupees”, did he declare.
The BJP, which has 103 members of the Assembly, sent Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin for the June 19 elections. While the Bharatiya Tribal Party has two deputies, the Nationalist Congress Party has a legislator and there is an independent legislator, Jignesh Mevani.
