Ahmed Patel moves SC against plea challenging election to RS

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel has moved the Supreme Court seeking dismissal of a petition in the Gujarat High Court challenging his election to the Rajya Sabha in 2017.

Patel was elected to the Rajya Sabha last year after beating the BJP nominee Balwantsinh Rajput, who had resigned from the Congress party to join the BJP.

The win for the Congress leader came after the Election Commission cancelled the votes of two Congress MLAs Bhola Bhai Gohil and Raghav Bhai Patel which brought down the requirement for an outright victory for a candidate to 44 from 45.

Immediately after Patel got elected, Rajput filed a petition in the HC challenging the Election Commission's decision to invalidate votes of the two rebel MLAs. Had these votes been counted, he would have defeated Patel, Rajput said.

His petition had also alleged that Patel took party MLAs to a resort in Bengaluru before the election, which amounted to bribing the voters.

Patel had challenged Rajput's plea and sought its dismissal at the "threshold level" for not serving on respondents an attested copy of the petition as required under the law.

The high court, however, rejected his plea and said the petitioner has substantially complied with the provisions of law and the defects could be easily cured.

Patel has now moved the top court against the high court order saying that Rajput's petition was "devoid of merits" and fails to show any "cause of action".