The outcome of the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections though was doubtful in the initial stages but as the delay in counting continued it became obvious that Bharatiya Janata Party is going to taste the bitter pill of defeat in its own home constituency of Gujarat. Not only this BJP president and the master-mind of giving an absolute majority to the party in the 2014 Parliamentary elections Amit Shah was making his debut to the Upper House which he won. Besides Shah the other high profile party player Smiriti Irani, too won at the electoral fray. So with such high profile characters in the fray no doubt elections to the Upper House has to be a prestigious one especially for BJP when it was looking to spruce up its numbers in Upper House. In a house of 245 members, the BJP now has 58 — one more than the 57 of the Congress at No.2 position. But the winning of Congress Party candidate Ahmed Patel who was pitted against Balvantsinh Rajput, the Congress rebel who joined the BJP, has taken everyone by surprise. The win for Ahmed Patel can be a turning point provided Congress reworks the strategy for 2019. Kudos to the Election Commission which stood on its ground despite coming under the pressure of five senior cabinet ministers to deliver a verdict that was a crushing blow to BJP. The election means a lot for Patel, one of the most powerful politicians of the main opposition party. He is seeking re-election for the fifth term in the Rajya Sabha. Amit Shah, who himself is a candidate, has fielded a nominee against Patel, laying the ground for a battle royale between the two master strategists of the Congress and the BJP. The win for Patel has been a big setback for Shah, who has put in his might against Patel. The opposition party has accused the BJP Government at the Centre of misusing central agencies to hound Congress MLAs from Gujarat and Karnataka Minister D.K Shivakumar, who hosted them at a resort near Bengaluru. Gujarat is scheduled to go to polls in November and Patel’s victory in such a high profile contest will boost the morale of the Congress cadres.
