Rajya Sabha polls: Congress confident of Ahmed Patel's Gujarat seat

The Congress, which is battling an exodus of Gujarat lawmakers into the BJP, said on Monday that it was confident of its Gujarat Rajya Sabha candidate Ahmed Patel's victory in the Rajya Sabha elections, claiming that the senior Congress leader had the support of more legislators than required for victory.

Even as he accused the BJP of "stealing" its MLAs under a "premeditated plan", senior Congress spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad said he was confident Ahmed Patel would win by a margin of 10-15 votes.

"Ahmed bhai will win by a margin of at least 10 to 15 votes. Our candidate had 13-14 votes surplus and the BJP says they do not steal. Why has the BJP fielded its third candidate for the polls when it does not have the requisite number of MLAs in support. It is only to steal our MLAs," he said. "This is a pre-meditated plan to steal MLAs."

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He said the BJP was "plotting" to steal Congress MLAs from the airport itself.

"The BJP is creating an atmosphere against them. They (BJP) are saying our MLAs are in Bengaluru when people are suffering because of floods. The BJP wants to exploit the situation so that when they return it could steal some of them and make a few others resign," he said.

Ghulam Nabi Azad also clarified that Ahmed Patel was contesting the Rajya Sabha election as a senior Congress leader and not as political secretary to party chief Sonia Gandhi and thus, her name should not be dragged into this poll.

"I don't want to involve the name of the Congress president. He is contesting as the senior Congress leader and not as political secretary," the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said.

He claimed Congress leaders and workers were on the ground, from block to district level, helping flood-hit people.

Congress sources also told PTI that Ahmed Patel had also offered his Rajya Sabha seat to Sankarsingh Vaghela before he quit the party.

Congress sources said Ahmed Patel was reluctant to fight the election but agreed after he was requested by the party.

The Congress had 57 MLAs in the 182-member Assembly. Of these, six have quit since Thursday, bring down its strength to 51.

Ahmed Patel requires 44 first preference votes for a straight win which seems easy to procure at the moment.

More desertions could, however, jeopardise his chances of getting elected to the Upper House for the fifth time. He also has the assured support of two MLAs of the NCP and one of the JD(U).

The BJP has fielded is chief Amit Shah and renominated federal minister Smriti Irani for two seats. It has fielded Balwantsinh Rajput for the third which is held by Patel.

Ahmed Patel filed his nominations for the August 8 polls on July 26.

Panic broke out in the Congress after Vaghela quit the party. Vaghela's exit was also preceded by cross-voting in BJP-majority Gujarat Assembly during the Presidential elections.

Vaghela claimed he would not join any other political party.

"I am freeing myself of the Congress and every other party. I am not going to join any political party. I will quit as Leader of Opposition today. I will quit as MLA in the next sitting," he told supporters at his 77th birthday celebrations in Gandhinagar.

Alarmed by the resignation of six of its legislators in Gujarat, the Congress on Saturday approached the Election Commission and demanded a high-level probe into alleged poaching of MLAs by the BJP.

The party flew 44 of its remaining 51 MLAs in the state to Bengaluru.

The Congress accuses theBJP is using "money, muscle and state power" to engineer defections.