Balwantsinh Rajput, the BJP candidate who lost to Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections earlier this month, has challenged the Election Commission’s decision to invalidate the votes of two rebel Congress MLAs who had voted for him.
The decision helped Ahmed Patel scrape through; he won exactly the number of votes he needed.
The Gujarat High Court will on Monday hear Mr Rajput’s petition demanding that Mr Patel’s election be set aside.
Mr Rajput has also accused Ahmed Patel of “corrupt practices” for flying out 44 Congress legislators to Bengaluru just ahead of the elections to prevent defections.
Balwantsinh Rajput was a senior leader of the Congress till days before the Rajya Sabha election when he quit the party and hours later joined the BJP.
