BJP fields Vinod Gotiya as independent candidate for RS polls,Rajya sabha polls ,BJP candidate,Vinod gotiya,RAjya sabha (RS) Polls latest news live updates
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- Last Updated: Friday, 03 June 2016 12:34
BJP fields Vinod Gotiya as independent candidate for RS polls,Rajya sabha polls ,BJP candidate,Vinod gotiya,RAjya sabha (RS) Polls latest news live updates,Madhya Pradesh
The BJP sprung a surprise in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections by fielding a party leader as an independent candidate on Tuesday - the last day for filing nominations. Vinod Gotiya, a state BJP general secretary from Jabalpur filed his nomination as an independent on Tuesday, thereby ensuring a contest that can go down to the wire. By fielding an independent, the BJP made it very obvious that it would do whatever it takes to improve its tally in the Upper House where it is in a minority.
There are three vacancies from Madhya Pradesh with the completion of term of Anil Madhav Dave and Dr Chandan Mitra of the BJP and Dr Vijay Laxmi Sadho of the Congress. As per the present strength of parties in the Vidhan Sabha, two seats would clearly go to the BJP while there is a contest for the third seat. Voting will take place on June 11 for the Rajya Sabha elections.
CANDIDATES NOMINATED
The BJP has re-nominated Anil Madhav Dave and nominated MJ Akbar as candidates for the polls by Monday. Prior to this the Congress had fielded senior lawyer Vivek Tankha as the party candidate.
Though there had been talk of the BJP attempting to win the third seat as well by forcing a contest, even though the party is at present 9 votes short, the nomination of Vivek Tankha as Congress candidate gave the impression that the BJP will not get into the contest. The reason, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhanand Congress candidate Vivek Tankha are perceived to be close to each other. The state government continues to be an admirer of the legal acumen of Vivek Tankha, a former advocate general during Congress rule, and has engaged his services in various important matters in the Supreme Court, even though Tankha is one of the lawyers for the Congress in the Vyapam scam that targets BJP leaders, especially the CM.
BJP sources said that the decision to field Vinod Gotiya was taken on Tuesday morning. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan accompanied Anil Madhav Dave and MJ Akbar when they went to file their nominations on Tuesday, but was conspicuous by his absence when Vinod Gotiya went to file his papers. A number of BJP MLAs accompanied Gotiya instead.
PRESENT STRENGTH
The arithmetic in the Vidhan Sabha: The MP assembly has 230 members. Voting for by-election has taken place at Ghodadongri (ST) segment on Monday and the new MLA will be notified by June 2 - the day counting will take place. As per present strength, the BJP has 165 MLAs, the Congress has 57, the BSP has 4 and independents 3. A total of 58 votes are needed for each Rajya Sabha MP to win. While the BJP will safely win the first two seats, the party will have 49 MLAs for the third seat.
In case the BJP wins Ghodadongri (ST) it will have 50 votes for the third seat and if the Congress wins it would have 58 seats and win the seat safely. However, in case the BJP wins Ghodadongri (ST) it still needs 8 more votes. In such a situation, the 4 BSP MLAs are crucial, while the 3 independents have already pledged their support to the BJP. Even if the party does get the 4 BSP votes and 3 independents, it still needs one MLA from the Congress to cross vote.
"The possibility of BSP voting with BJP is not very high given that elections are due in UP and the party will not want to be seen hobnobbing with the BJP," said a BJP leader.
src:indiatoday