Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls: Tough fight between Congress, BJP over seats vacated by Amit Shah, Smriti Irani

Voting for two seats of Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha will take place on July 5. It is likely that one of the seats can go to the Congress. The Election Commission on Saturday announced the dates for the voting of the Gujarat seats in the Rajya Sabha. According to the announcement, the names for the candidates can be submitted till June 25 and the voting will take place on July 5.

Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat this year has taken a very interesting turn.

The Gujarat seats fell vacant after Amit Shah won from Gandhinagar and Smriti Irani from Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.

In a statement, the Election Commission clarified that the vacancies for bypolls to all Houses, including the Rajya Sabha, are considered "separate vacancies" and separate notifications are issued and separate polls are held, though the schedule can be the same.

It cited two Delhi High Court rulings of 1994 and 2009 which had supported the system of holding separate bypolls in the same state under provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

The Congress has alleged that such a move is unprecedented in the Rajya Sabha elections and that it was a conspiracy to make way for the BJP to win both the seats.

The Congress had demanded that the bypolls to the two vacant seats in Gujarat be held together as it felt that it could win one of the two Rajya Sabha seats vacated by Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani.

The BJP is trying its level best to make sure that the two seats are won by their party candidates only.

If we look at the numbers for the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, it is possible that one of the seats will go to the BJP and one will be taken by the Congress.

At present, the Congress has 72 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly while the BJP has 100 MLAs.

After the BJP's four MLAs managed to get into the Parliament, the party has just 100 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly. If the BJP intends to win both the Gujarat seats in the Rajya Sabha, it will require atleast 120 MLAs.

The other seats for which bypolls have been announced are one vacated by Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (Bihar) and Achuytananda Samanta (Odisha) following their election to the Lok Sabha.

The Rajya Sabha bypolls will also be held on two more seats from Odisha. While one was vacated by Pratap Kesari Deb who got elected to the state assembly and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik who resigned.