Voting for the bypolls to the two Rajya Sabha seats in Gujrat began at the Assembly complex in Gandhinagar on Friday, 5 July.
State ministers Saurabh Patel, Pradeepsinh Jadeja and BJP MLA Arunsinh Rana were among the first few to cast their votes.
The Congress had shifted 65 of its total 71 MLAs to a resort in Banaskantha two days ahead of elections, as these MLAs would arrive for voting after 10:30 am, a party leader told news agency PTI.
THE CANDIDATES
While the BJP has fielded External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and OBC leader Juglaji Thakor, the Congress has nominated Chandrika Chudasama and Gaurav Pandya.
VOTING TO GO ON TILL 4 PM
Voting for the two seats, which began at 9 am, will continue till 4 pm on Friday. The counting of votes will be taken up at 5 pm.
LETS TALK NUMBERS
Since election on the two seats is being held separately, a candidate needs to garner a simple 50 percent votes to win.
In the present scenario, each candidate needs 88 votes to secure victory.
Given its strength in the 182-member Assembly, the BJP is set to win both the seats for which voting is being held separately as per the Election Commissions (EC) notification.
Of the total 182 MLAs, 175 are qualified to exercise their franchise this time.
The BJP's strength stands at 100, followed by 71 MLAs of the Congress.
BYPOLLS TO FILL IN FOR AMIT SHAH, SMRITI IRANI
Bypolls for the two seats from Gujarat were necessitated after Union ministers Amit Shah and Smriti Irani resigned as Rajya Sabha members following their election to the Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar and Amethi constituencies respectively in May this year.
Four seats are lying vacant following the resignations of the MLAs after their election to the Lok Sabha.
(With inputs from PTI)
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