Ahmed Patel died on 25 November while BJP’s newly elected Rajya Sabha member Abhay Bhardwaj passed away a week later. If the elections for the two vacant seats are held together, the BJP and Congress could bag one seat each with their respective strengths (111 and 65) in the state Assembly.
(Photo: Twitter/ BJP)
The ruling BJP in Gujarat is poised to gain one more seat in the Rajya Sabha with the Election Commission deciding to hold separate by-elections for the two vacancies caused by the demise of Congress’Ahmed Patel and BJP’s Abhay Bhardwaj.
Ahmed Patel died on 25 November while BJP’s newly elected Rajya Sabha member Abhay Bhardwaj passed away a week later. If the elections for the two vacant seats are held together, the BJP and Congress could bag one seat each with their respective strengths (111 and 65) in the state Assembly.
But the Election Commission has decided to hold the by-elections for the two seats separately, thus enabling the ruling BJP to win both seats effortlessly with the strength of 111 seats in the 182-member state legislature.
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The dates for the two by-elections for the Rajya Sabha seats have not yet been announced but the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has directed the state poll panel to conduct the by-elections separately.
Since Congress leader Ahmed Patel was re-elected to the Upper House in August 2017, the tenure of the person elected to the vacancy would expire in August 2023. BJP’s Abhay Bhardwaj was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in June this year but he succumbed to Covid-19 even before attending the Upper House for a single day. The person elected to this vacancy would retire from Rajya Sabha in June 2026.
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