New Delhi/Gandhinagar: The Election Commission of India on Friday announced biennial elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, setting the stage for what is likely to be the Congress party’s complete exit from the Upper House from the state for the first time since Gujarat was formed in 1960.
Polling for the seats will be held on June 18, with June 8 fixed as the last date for filing nominations.
The four seats falling vacant in Gujarat are currently held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Rambhai Mokariya, Narhari Amin and Ramila Bara, and Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil, whose terms end on June 21.
With the BJP commanding an overwhelming majority in the 182-member state Assembly, party leaders expect all four seats to go to the ruling party.
The BJP currently has 162 MLAs, two Independents, while the Congress has 12 MLAs, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has four and the Samajwadi Party has one.
One MLA elected on an AAP ticket is currently unattached after expulsion from the party.
The numbers leave the Congress without a realistic path to retain the lone Rajya Sabha seat it currently holds through Gohil.
If the BJP secures all four seats, the Congress will cease to have any representation from Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha, marking a significant symbolic setback for the Opposition party in a state where the BJP has remained in power for nearly three decades.
The election could go uncontested because the BJP has the numbers to comfortably elect four candidates without requiring cross-voting or support from smaller parties.
Gohil’s retirement carries particular political significance for the Congress in the state. A senior party leader from Bhavnagar district, Gohil has been among the most prominent Congress faces in the state over the past three decades.
He has served as Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly and held portfolios including finance, education, health and Narmada development in earlier Congress governments in the state.
He entered the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in 2020 and later served as president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC).
Narhari Amin, another retiring member from Gujarat, is among the state’s senior-most politicians and served as deputy chief minister in the late 1990s before joining the BJP after a long stint in the Congress.
Rambhai Mokariya is considered an influential BJP organisational leader from the Saurashtra region, while Ramila Bara has represented tribal communities in Parliament and has been associated with the BJP’s outreach among Scheduled Tribe voters in south Gujarat.
The Rajya Sabha elections are being held for 24 seats across 10 states as members retire between June 21 and July 19.
Besides Gujarat, polling will take place for four seats each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, three each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two in Jharkhand and one each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
Among the prominent leaders retiring from the Upper House are former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge from Karnataka, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh, Union minister George Kurian from Madhya Pradesh and Union minister Ravneet Singh from Rajasthan.
The Election Commission said scrutiny of nominations will take place on June 9, while June 11 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature. Counting of votes will be held on the evening of June 18.
(IANS)
