Wary that the BJP might have a trick up its sleeve in having its leaders Amit Shah and Smriti Irani resign from the Rajya Sabha on different dates, the Congress on Thursday warned the ruling dispensation that this should not result in the holding of elections to the two seats of the upper house from Gujarat on different dates.
Shah and Irani, upon winning the Lok Sabha elections, have resigned from the Rajya Sabha. However, while Shah's seat in the upper house was declared vacant on May 28, that of Irani was declared vacant on May 29. Also, while Shah was declared a winner in the Lok Sabha polls from Gandhinagar on May 23, Irani was declared a winner from Amethi, where she defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi, a day later.
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Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, said that there is an apprehension that the election to the two seats of the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat could be held on different dates. He said that any staggering of the poll dates for the two seats would be unconstitutional.
“We appeal to the Election Commission that if elections for two seats, that of Amit Shah and Ms Irani, were to be held on different dates, it would be unconstitutional and illegal. This would be playing with the MLAs mandate,” Singhvi said.
He said that, as per convention, whenever you have two seats in a state going vacant, you have elections together. The Congress's claim is that staggering the elections to the two seats would help the ruling party in the state.
“If you have one election today and one after 'x' number of weeks, you will enable the ruling party MLAs to simply cross 51 per cent in the Assembly of Gujarat and elect him in the first round and him again in the second round which is held after weeks,” Singhvi said.
“My apprehension can be proved unfounded by a two-line statement, immediately today or tomorrow by the EC that there are no intentions of having separate elections for two joined seats,” he further said.
The BJP has 99 MLAs in the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha, while the Congress has 77 legislators. If elections to the two seats are held on the same day, the Congress stands a chance of winning one of them. However, if the election dates are different, the ruling BJP can take advantage of the 'first-past-the-post' system and win on both the occasions.
