Gujarat RS polls: Full text of EC order disqualifying votes of 2 Cong MLAs

Voters have to show ballots to authorised representative of respective parties before casting them

In a jolt to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress candidate Ahmed Patel on Wednesday scraped through to notch a victory in a bitterly-contested Rajya Sabha election against all out efforts of the BJP to check his attempt to seek a fifth term.

After the intense political developments, the Election Commission (EC) declared results for the three seats of the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat. Total 176 MLAs voted in the crucial elections, but two votes were declared invalid.

The EC, on late Tuesday night, declared votes of two Congress MLAs- Bhola Bhai Gohil and Raghav Bhai Patel- invalid. The decision was taken on a complaint of the Congress.

Earlier in the evening, Congress had complained to the EC and said that the two MLAs showed their votes to unauthorized persons and demanded their votes should not be counted and should be rejected.

Congress said these MLAs showed their votes to Shah and Irani and independent candidate Balwantsinh Rajput, instead of the representative of Ahmed Patel.

According to the rules, voters for the Rajya Sabha elections have to show their ballots to authorised representative of their respective parties before casting them. Terming Congress’ objections as “baseless”, a delegation of BJP leaders, including Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal, approached the EC demanding immediate counting of votes, contending that validity of votes once put in ballot boxes could not be questioned.

Read the full Election Commission order: