By-polls for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat started on Friday with one candidate each from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress in the fray.
The BJP has fielded external affairs minister S Jaishankar and OBC leader Juglaji Thakor and the Congress has nominated Chandrika Chudasama and Gaurav Pandya for the seats. Voting for the two seats, which started at 9am, will continue till 4pm in Gandhinagar. The counting will be held at 5pm the same day.
The by-polls on the two seats from Gujarat are being conducted after the BJP’s sitting Rajya Sabha MPs Amit Shah and Smriti Irani resigned following their election to the Lok Sabha in May from Gandhinagar and Amethi, respectively.
The BJP – with 104 MLAs in the 182-member assembly – looks set to win both the seats in the by polls. The Congress has 71 MLAs. Out of the total 182 MLAs, 175 legislators are qualified to exercise their franchise this time.
Other MLAs eligible to cast their vote are two from the Bharatiya Tribal Party, one from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and an Independent candidate.