Rebel Congress MLAs Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Zala resigned from the State Legislative Assembly, soon after casting their votes against the whip issued by the party in the by-elections to two Rajya Sabha seats of Gujarat. Both BJP candidates — External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and OBC youth leader Jugal Thakor — won the election.
“S Jaishankar received 104 votes while Thakor received 105 votes. Both Congress rivals received 70 votes each. One vote was invalidated on the Amit Shah seat. We are not immediately sure who cast the invalid vote,” Additional chief electoral officer Ashok Manek said.
A total of five MLAs — from the Congress, the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — voted for the BJP.
Meanwhile, Thakor and Zala, after casting their votes, rushed to the chamber of the Speaker of Gujarat Assembly Rajendra Trivedi and tendered their resignations. Both MLAs expressed their grievances against the Congress though they did not say if they would join the BJP in the near future.
Post Your Comments