Rajya Sabha poll in Gujarat: Counting delayed due to Congress's objections

 Counting of votes for four Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat was delayed on Friday as the Congress demanded that the Election Commission invalidate two BJP votes on different grounds.

Siddhartha Singh
Published on: 19 Jun 2020 2:18 PM GMT
Rajya Sabha poll in Gujarat: Counting delayed due to Congresss objections
X
Rajya Sabha poll in Gujarat: Counting delayed due to Congress's objections

Gandhinagar: Counting of votes for four Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat was delayed on Friday as the Congress demanded that the Election Commission invalidate two BJP votes on different grounds.

Lader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani said the Congress has sought cancellation of votes cast by BJP MLA Kesrisinh Solanki and minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama.

"As long as our grievances about voting are not dealt with, counting will not start. We submitted our objections to the EC representative here after voting ended," said Dhanani.

A senior official, however, said that the EC observer rejected the opposition party's objections and referred the matter to EC's Delhi office for final decision.

The Congress objected to Chudasama casting his vote on the ground that his election was annulled by Gujarat High Court last month. The Supreme Court has stayed that order.

As to Solanki's vote, the party claimed that an unauthorised person accompanied him inside the polling booth.

The Congress was referring to a person who was deployed to pull his wheelchair as Solanki came directly from hospital.

Voting for four Rajya Sabha seats began at 9 am and continued till 4 pm. 170 out of 172 MLAs exercised their franchise. Two Bharatiya Tribal Party MLAs did not turn up.

The BJP has fielded Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramila Bara and Narhari Amin, while the Congress has fielded Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki.

(PTI)

Siddhartha Singh

Siddhartha Singh

Next Story