Gujarat: Five ex-MLAs who quit Congress party ahead of Rajya Sabha polls join BJP

After quitting from the Congress ahead of Rajya Sabha, five Gujarat ex-MLAs joined the BJP in Gandhinagar on Friday. The ex-MLAs - JV Kakadiya, Jitu Chaudhary, Brijesh Merja, Pradyumansinh Jadeja and Akshay Patel had quit Congress - of which Patel, Merja, and Chaudhary had resigned earlier this month. BJP won three of the four Gujarat seats in the Rajya Sabha polls held on June 19.

Gohil finds way into Rajya Sabha, BJP claws its way to three of four seats

Gujarat: 5 ex-MLAs join BJP

Rajya Sabha Elections 2020 Live Updates: NDA sweeps polls winning 10 out of 19 seats

Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls

On June 19, all three candidates of BJP - Ramilaben Bara, Abhay Bhardwaj, and Narhari Amin won RS seats, while Congress managed to win only one seat - Shaktisinh Gohil, due to its reduced party strength of 65 in a 180-strong Assembly. The second candidate INC candidate, Bharatsinh Solanki, lost the polls as he got only 30 votes compared to Narhari Amin who won 32 votes. Minutes after the results were out, the Congress candidates Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki challenged BJPs' Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Kesarisinh Chudasama's votes - this was later rejected by the State Election Commission claiming that Congress should've made the application during the voting.

Ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, Congress lodged several of its MLAs in resorts fearing poaching attempts by the BJP in different resorts,  dividing them into zone-wise groups. While both Congress and BJP were set to win two seats unopposed, with the reduced strength, Congress failed to win the second seat as 2 BTP MLAs refrained from voting. Moreover, the lone NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja reportedly voted for BJP despite being issued a whip by party supremo Sharad Pawar.

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BJP sweeps Rajya Sabha polls

In a major victory for the saffron party, BJP won 10 out of 19 seats in the upper Parliamentary house. BJP's Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sumer Singh Solanki from Madhya Pradesh, Narhari Amin, Abhay Bhardwaj and Ramila Bara from Gujarat, Leisemba Sanajaoba from Manipur, Deepak Prakash from Jharkhand and Rajendra Gehlot from Rajasthan were elected to the Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, YSRCP won all 4 seats in Andhra, Congress won one seat each in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and two in Rajasthan. The remaining seats from Mizoram, Meghalaya, Jharkhand were won by MNF, NPP and JMM respectively. With this, BJP's tally in Rajya Sabha has upped to 85 and Congress to 41, while the total strength of the Upper House has gone up to 244.

Four seats 5 candidates: Gujarat RS polls to see close contest