The election for Gujarat’s three Rajya Sabha seats held on Tuesday was a taint on the very idea of democracy. The sordid drama that played out on television screens across the nation couldn’t but have filled all Indians with dismay. If symbolism has a place in life, these developments are all the more disturbing, coming as they do a week before Independence Day and on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, when we began to throw off the colonial yoke. It was a high-stakes election for the BJP, the ruling party at the Centre and Gujarat, and the Congress. The BJP is evidently keen to wipe out any Congress representation from Gujarat in the Council of States, taking forward its agenda of a “Congress-mukt Bharat”. Since Congress candidate Ahmed Patel, political secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was seeking re-election, the BJP worked extra hard to have him defeated. With Assembly elections due in Gujarat at the end of the year, a defeat for Mr Patel was expected to further demoralise the Congress in Gujarat.
These are not unlikely considerations for a party, but the way politics has played out there can be little doubt that every unfair means possible has been tried in this election. Horse-trading is writ large on the entire process. Typically, in India, this takes the form of money gifts and a political dividend. All of a sudden, a number of Congress MLAs resigned their Assembly seats. There was murky talk of blandishments coupled with threats. A nervous Congress transported most of its MLAs to Karnataka to shield them from poaching. A close eye was kept on them even when they returned just before the poll. Even so, it appears one of them jumped ship.
Meanwhile, an intense battle ensued to win the vote of two NCP MLAs and a lone JD(U) MLA, besides an Independent member and a clutch of Congress MLAs. Every single vote became important and had to be obtained urgently, by fair means or foul. Party lines were crossed with abandon. After voting, some worthies publicly declared who they had voted for, and then contradicted themselves. They were evidently keen to impress their benefactors. Two Congress MLAs infringed the rules, framed to discourage horse-trading, and showed their ballot paper to top BJP leaders before casting their ballot. The Congress has urged the Election Commission to nullify their votes. In a retaliatory move, top Union ministers, including Arun Jaitley, officially complained to the EC against the ballot of a loyalist Congress MLA. It wasn’t a fair election, no matter what. The Election Commission needs to cancel it and order fresh elections.
