Victory of democracy over autocracy in Gujarat: Mamata

Meanwhile, Ahmed Patel, who also serves as the political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, called on the party unit to gear up for their target win in the December assembly elections – 125 seats out of 182.

He also said it was one of his most hard elections.

In his sternest comments yet on absenteeism among BJP MPs in Parliament, PM Narendra Modi on Thursday put the members on notice, hinting they could not take things for granted when it comes to the next Lok Sabha election. Shah and Irani received 46 votes each. “I thank my party leaders and my MLAs'” Patel told a gathering of Congress MLAs later. He said, since the start of the polling of votes till closing, the Congress has raised no objection.

He was referring to the votes of rebel Congress MLAs Raghavjee Patel and Bholbhai Gohel, which were invalidated after Congress’ polling agent Shaktisinh Gohil lodged a complaint with the EC.

Refuting the Congress charges as “baseless”, the BJP said the validity of votes – once put in the ballot boxes – could not be questioned. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani are other two candidates who also won. Vaghela had quit the Congress last month, followed by resignation of six MLAs.

One of the old Congress allies, Sharad Pawar’s NCP is another possibility. Voting for the three Rajya Sabha seats was conducted on Tuesday.

Subsequently, another delegation of Congress led by Ghulam Nabi Azad met the commission and made the same points that were made by Surjewala.

The Congress on Wednesday expelled eight Gujarat MLAs for going against the party whip in Tuesday’s Rajya Sabha election in the state.

The offer was too tempting for Amit Shah as he always held grudges against Patel and wanted his defeat at any cost for allegedly plotting false cases against him and also getting him arrested him by the CBI.

“It was the most hard election for me but was confident of my win”. “Two persons are misusing central investigation agencies, Even the BJP is afraid of these two people”. Those two votes of the Congress rebels turned the tables against the BJP which may be planning to take the battle to the Supreme Court.

He added that the prime minister praised Shah’s strategy and tireless efforts, “like a common worker”, to expand the footprints of the party in the country. But Shah, given his track record, has shown a tendency to bounce back with greater vigour after setbacks, something that was evident in the way he set about winning elections after the BJP’s Bihar defeat.