Cong complains to EC against 2 rebel MLAs who showed Amit Shah ballot papers
August 08, 2017  17:34
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The Congress has lodged a complaint against two rebel MLAs who showed their ballot papers to BJP president Amit Shah. While the names of the two Congress MLAs are not available, Gujarat Congress leader Dharmendra Jadeja and Raghavji Patel have both said that they voted for BJP candidate Balwantsinh Rajput. A JDU MLA has also voted for the BJP. The Congress wants the two MLAs who showed their ballot papers to be disqualified for breach of the EC's code of conduct. 

Gujarat's Chief Electoral Officer BB Swain announced that the counting will begin at 5 pm and the results will be in by 6 pm. But the counting has been delayed because of this complaint.

Former Gujarat Congress chief Shankersinh Vaghela said he voted for BJP despite earlier calling Patel his "friend". The good news for Congress candidate Ahmed Patel is that he got one vote each from both NCP and JD(U).

Congress leader Ashok Gehlot claimed that Patel will comfortably win as he has the required numbers of 45 votes, though he accepted that one of the party MLAs, who was part of the 44 legislators huddled together for over a week in Bengaluru, has cross-voted.

Congress leaders said they have got 45 votes, the magical number required to win the seat, as 43 of their MLAs, one from NCP and one from JD (U) have voted for the party.

The Congress has 51 MLAs in the House after six legislators resigned following a rebellion by senior party leader Shankarsinh Vaghela. Out of the 51 MLAs, seven of Vaghela group (including Vaghela) had not gone to Bengaluru, unlike the rest of the 44.

Technically, these seven MLAs are still with the Congress, including Vaghela as he has not resigned as MLA. Gehlot accepted that all the seven MLAs of Vaghela group, including Raghavji Patel and Dharmedrasinh Jadeja, have cross-voted.
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