On a night high in drama, Ahmed Patel finally emerged victorious and won the votes necessary to retain his Rajya Sabha seat. The final count from Election Commission stated that Ahmed Patel got 44 votes, while Amit Shah and Smriti Irani got 46 votes. Balvantsinh Rajput was the only loser of the day as he ended up with 38 votes.
The counting of votes was to start at 5 pm, but it was delayed after the Congress moved the EC demanding cancellation of the votes of the two party MLAs who allegedly showed their ballots to BJP chief Amit Shah before casting them in violation of rules. Late in the night, the poll panel rejected the votes cast by Congress MLAs Bholabhai Gohil and Raghavjibhai Patel, and gave the go ahead for counting of votes, after hearing three delegations each of the Congress and the BJP and viewing the video recording of the voting process.
The Election Commission tonight rejected the votes cast by two Congress MLAs who showed their ballots to BJP chief Amit Shah before casting them in violation of rules, and gave the go ahead for counting of votes in the controversy-ridden Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls.
The poll panel passed the order after viewing the video recording of the voting process, saying two electors– Bholabhai Gohil and Raghavjibhai Patel–had “violated the voting procedure and secrecy of ballots.” The usually quiet polls for the upper chamber of Parliament turned acrimonious and chaotic after the Congress approached the Election Commission demanding cancellation of the votes of Gohil and Patel for having shown the ballots to people other than the party’s authorised representatives.
Three delegations each of the Congress and BJP made a dash for ‘Nirvachan Sadan’, the EC headquarters, within a span of two hours, with the former demanding that the votes of Gohil and Patel be declared invalid, and the latter insisting that counting be taken up “immediately”.
The poll panel, finally, accepted the Congress’s contention and asked the returning officer to reject the votes of its two MLAs and proceed with the counting.
