New Delhi: A day after the Congress tried to secure its 44 Gujarat MLAs by shifting them to a luxurious resort in Karnataka, two more MLAs indicated their wish to ditch the party in favour of the BJP.
As of now, two MLAs of NCP and 1 of JD(U) have pledged their support to senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel.
Sensing trouble, senior Congress leaders in Delhi approached the Election Commission on Saturday to complain that the Gujarat government was “engineering” defections ahead of the 8 August elections for three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat.
The EC said that it has directed the state government to “ensure proper security to all the MLAs and their family members”, and sought a report over Congress’ allegation.
An EC spokesperson said the Gujarat chief secretary has been asked to furnish a report to the poll panel in this context by July 31. Six Congress MLAs quit the party recently, after senior leader Shankersinh Vaghela and his son, Mahendrasinh Vaghela, left the party.
If the two Congress MLAs from Jamnagar also quit the party, the Congress’ strength in Gujarat Assembly will come down to 47 MLAs. The strength of the Assembly will also be reduced from 182 to 172. Even in that scenario, each candidate would require 43 votes. With 35 spare BJP votes in his favour, Mr Rajput would need only eight more votes to defeat Mr Patel. If more Congress MLAs quit before August 8, it would take mammoth effort to get Mr Patel into the Rajya Sabha.
