Giving some anxious moments to the the Congress on the eve of Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat, Nationalist Congress Party MLA Kandhal Jadeja on Monday claimed the party high command has decided to support Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Balvantsinh Rajput.
MP Supriya Sule, daughter of the party founder Sharad Pawar, however, said that NCP MLAs in Gujarat would back the Congress.
The NCP has two MLAs in Gujarat -- Kandhal Jadeja and Jayant Patel, its state unit president.
Jadeja told reporters in Gandhinagar that the party has asked both of them to give their first preference votes to Rajput.
“As per our party’s directive, we have to give our vote to BJP’s Balvantsinh Rajput. He will be our first preference,” said Kandhal, who has openly admitted in the past that he was very close to senior leader Shankersinh Vaghela, who recently quit the Congress.
“I just received a phone call from my party leaders who asked me to vote for Rajput,” said Jadeja.
Jayant Patel and NCP’s in-charge for Gujarat, Praful Patel, were not available for comments.
Asked to comment on reports that the party MLAs have been asked to vote for BJP, Sule said, “To the best of my knowledge it’s Congress (that NCP MLAs would vote for).”
On Sunday, Praful Patel had said his party, which shared power with the Congress at the Centre during the United Progressive Alliance regime and also had a pre-poll alliance with it in Gujarat in 2012 assembly elections, had not taken any decision.
However, referring to some unconfirmed reports, Congress’ candidate Ahmed Patel today claimed that NCP had taken the decision to vote for him.
The election to three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat has turned into a high-stake battle.
BJP president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani are in the fray; the ruling party has also fielded Rajput, a former Congress MLA, as a third candidate.
Going by its strength in the assembly, the BJP is certain to win two seats but would require additional votes to ensure the victory of the third candidate.
The Congress was recently jolted by Vaghela’s exit, cross-voting in presidential election and resignation of half a dozen party MLAs.
A confident Ahmed Patel, after meeting the Congress MLAs who have returned from Bengaluru, had said he has the support of more MLAs than required for the win.
“Apart from these 44 (Congress) legislators, two of NCP, one of JD-U (Janata Dal-United) would give their vote for me," he had said.
Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, needs 45 votes to win.
It is after a gap of about two decades that a contest is happening in Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, where official nominees of major parties used to get elected unopposed, after the BJP fielded a Congress rebel against Patel, who is seeking a fifth term.
Ahmed Patel, who met Congress MLAs after they returned from their Bengaluru sojourn, said he was confident of his victory.
The Congress, which has been out of power in the state for over a decade-and-a-half now, was rattled by the surprise exit of party stalwart Vaghela recently.
It was jolted further when its six MLAs, including Rajput, a relative of Vaghela resigned from the assembly. Three of them later joined the BJP, setting off alarm bells in the party in Gujarat where assembly elections are due later this year.
The beleaguered Congress flew its 44 MLAs to Bengaluru to ward off any threat of ‘poaching’ by the BJP.
However, six of the 51 MLAs still in the Congress, apart from Vaghela, have not put their cards on the table. They were not among the MLAs packed off to Bengaluru.
Vaghela, who resigned from the party and as the leader of the opposition, has not quit the House yet, giving the Congress a major cause for worry.
The Congress had faced a major embarrassment in the presidential election when joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar could manage 49 votes when the party’s strength then was 57.
A candidate will require 45 votes for a straight win in the poll, and the BJP with 121 MLAs in the truncated 176-member Assembly following the resignation of six Congress legislators, can secure easy victories for Shah and Irani.
The party will be left with 31 surplus votes for Rajput, who will require the backing of rebel MLAs of the Congress and smaller parties to win. Now that he has the support of two NCP MLAs, his task would become a bit easier.
For now, Ahmed Patel looks like having the clear backing of 44 Congress MLAs, but even if none of them cross-votes or uses NOTA (None of the Above) option, the Congress candidate will require one additional vote for his victory.
The Congress is also banking on the support of two NCP MLAs, and one each of the JD-U and Gujarat Parivartan Party.
JD-U MLA Chotubhai Vasava has been saying he will only support those who will give something to his constituency.
Keeping his cards close to chest, Vaghela today chose to maintain silence on his choice of candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, but said Congress nominee Ahmed Patel remained a ‘friend’.
“Each and every voter is the owner of his vote. The vote is the personal property of an MLA (for the RS polls). Therefore, I do not want to reveal whom I will vote for,” Vaghela told reporters.
The 77-year-old veteran said he was no longer in touch with the Congress and dismissed the talk that he was in contact with the BJP.
According to Election Commission officials, a candidate would require one-fourth of the total number of votes plus one to get elected. This would mean a contestant has to muster 45 votes.
The MLAs have to give their preferential votes indicating first choice, second, third, fourth (as per number of candidates) or they can choose NOTA, they said.
Meanwhile, Amit Shah, who has helmed the party to spectacular victories in several elections since 2014, is camping in Gujarat strategising on how to get all three BJP nominees win.
