In Rajya Sabha Polls Today, NCP Legislator Says Will Back BJP: 10 Points

Amit Shah is assured of a win in Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat marking his debut in Parliament

Highlights

The Congress' Gujarat Assembly strength has gone down from 57 to 51
Ahmed Patel's re-election to the Rajya Sabha is now in doubt
Shankersinh Vaghela allegedly scripted the defections of the Gujarat MLAs

Ahmedabad: BJP chief Amit Shah met his party's 121 legislators for over four-and-a-half hours in Gujarat capital Gandhinagar on Monday, overseeing voting practice to ensure no votes are invalidated in today's crucial Rajya Sabha election to three seats. The party worked on a strategy to win all three seats, aiming to prevent the re-election to the upper house of Parliament of Congress A-lister Ahmed Patel. Mr Patel too met his party's MLAs at a resort in Anand, about 76 km away and he said he is confident he has the numbers.

Here are the top 10 updates in this story:

Both Amit Shah and Ahmed Patel are contesting today's election. Mr Shah is assured of a win for his debut in Parliament, given his party's superior numbers in the Gujarat assembly. Union minister Smiti Irani will get re-elected to the second seat. Each candidate needs to get 45 votes to win.
For the third seat, the BJP has fielded Balwantsinh Rajput to take on Ahmed Patel. Mr Rajput is one of the six MLAs who quit the Congress a few days ago. He and two others promptly joined the BJP.
Besides the Congress legislators, Mr Patel is counting on the votes of two legislators from Sharad Pawar's NCP, which is yet to issue a whip, or formal order, on which way to vote. One of the lawmakers, Kandhal Jadeja, told NDTV on Monday night that he has been asked by the party leadership to vote for the BJP.
At 4:30 Monday morning, 43 Congress legislators flew back to Ahmedabad from Bangalore where they had been taken to prevent any more defections after the six MLAs quit the party, putting Mr Patel's re-election to the Rajya Sabha in jeopardy.
Ahmed Patel, who is political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, received the MLAs at the airport, from where they were driven to the Neejanand Resort in Anand in two buses. There are 44 legislators there and they will be driven straight to the assembly to vote today morning.
Shankersinh Vaghela, who exited the party last month after it refused to project him for chief minister in assembly elections later this year, has sent out mixed signals on how he will vote today. The Congress says its whip or formal order in the assembly to vote for Ahmed Patel applies to Mr Vaghela too.
A Janata Dal United legislator said to be close to Ahmed Patel is unreachable and there is no word on how he will vote after his party tied up with the BJP in Bihar.
BJP leaders said they are confident they will win all three seats. Sources said they expect two or three of the Congress MLAs at the Anand resort to vote against Mr Patel.
The Congress has warned that any move to defy the party's order to vote for Mr Patel will attract heavy penalty, including legal action that could mean being barred from contesting elections. At least 11 Congress MLAs had voted for the BJP's nominee Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election last month instead of Meira Kumar, backed by the opposition.
The BJP has rubbished the Congress' allegation that it is coercing and attempting to bribe the opposition party's MLAs to scuttle Ahmed Patel's re-election.