Willing to raise the stakes further, the losing MLA, Balwantsinh Rajput, a rebel Congress heavyweight who fought against Patel, is soon expected to file an election petition in the high court.
Losing the hotly contested Rajya Sabha elections for the third seat to Ahmed Patel of Congress by a wafer-thin margin, the BJP is not ready to call it a day in Gujarat.
Willing to raise the stakes further, the losing MLA, Balwantsinh Rajput, a rebel Congress heavyweight who fought against Patel, is soon expected to file an election petition in the high court.
"Rajput is talking to his lawyer and would soon file his petition either in Ahmedabad, or Delhi high court,"said a senior BJP leader.
Describing the recently concluded elections as a complete victory, BJP sources insisted that the result would have been different had the Election Commission (EC) stuck to pure constitutional aspect by taking the decision of the Returning Officer as final.
"The Commission saw on the video footage and did not go into the constitutional aspect,"said BJP sources. "The fact is that the recent elections extended our base and reduced the Congress to the margins just before the Gujarat assembly elections," said a BJP leader adding that this would help include more seats to its existing tally of 122 MLAs and reach the target of 150 that Amit Shah has set for the party.
"The talks of Congress making a come back are just glib talk as before these elections Congress had 57 MLAs besides enjoying the support of four allies. Yet they failed miserably in amassing votes of 44 MLAs, and won the election by fluke,"said the leader.
Rebutting Congress allegations, the BJP leader insisted that all the legislators came to party's fold not because of any inducement but on their own. "All of them are well off and do not need money,"said the leader.
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