Ahmed Patel’s victory is a severe setback to BJP president Amit Shah who pulled out all the stops to deny Sonia Gandhi’s close aide a fifth term in the Rajya Sabha. Congress representatives sent the EC a video recording of the two Congress MLAs stood sheepishly in front of Shah displaying their ballot papers, confirming that they had held up their end of the bargain*, the BJP leader had struck with them. BJP deployed all underhand methods ever known in politics, money power, muscle power, you name it, they have deployed it to ensure defeat of Patel, but in vain and BJP stands exposed of personal vendetta and political terror. But what they forgot was that if a party has issued a whip, the MLAs can show their vote to their authorized polling agent only. If it is shown to anyone else, the vote becomes invalid. In the end, it was Shah’s personal involvement in the operation that proved the BJP’s undoing with the EC invalidating the votes of two Congress defectors since they had showed their ballots to BJP president. The fact that six union ministers led by Arun Jaitley marched down to the Election Commission not once but twice to try and sway the outcome indicates shameless involvement of Modi. The Election Commission initially refused to entertain Congress complaint and left it to the state returning officer to take a call and decide but eventually decided to look at the video of the voting before taking any fresh decision. Kudos to Election Commission for sticking to 'rule of the law' fearlessly.
*The deal rumored as Rs.15 crores in cash, next assembly ticket and campaign expenses.
*The deal rumored as Rs.15 crores in cash, next assembly ticket and campaign expenses.
Treat people with respect on your way up because you will be meeting them
on your way down ... a bitter lesson learnt by Ahmed Patel
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