Ahmedabad:

Update: 44 Congress MLAs were taken to Neejanand resort in the morning by Congress party with police security. Neejanand resort has 100 rooms. According to district Congress chief, the party has booked 50 rooms of resort for MLAs and others. Rajya Sabha candidate Ahmed Patel will be at this place in the evening. He will interact with the MLAs in group and also on one-to-one basis if needed. Meanwhile some MLAs reportedly objected presence of PSO allocated to each MLA by police inside the resort. It is believed that sisters and family members of MLAs will arrive at Neejanand resort to tie Rakhi and celebrate Rakshabandhan. All 44 MLAs will be taken to Gandhinagar tomorrow for voting in Rajya Sabha election. Responsibility of their smooth/safe journey to Gandhinagar has been assigned to NSUI. Party’s chief whip Shailesh Parmar said Congress MLAs who would vote against the party in tomorrow’s polling will be suspended for six years. If they vote for party, they will continue to be party members for lifetime. Meanwhile at the airport earlier in the morning today, the MLAs were not allowed to speak to media persons. It should be noted that during departure for Bangalore a week ago, reporters had asked questions to MLAs. One of MLAs from flood-hit Banaskantha district (Deesa MLA) had replied that they were going to Bangalore to enjoy. In order to prevent MLAs from passing such remarks, Congress workers cordoned off the MLAs at airport and shielded them against media.

Earlier story

After spending over a week at luxurious resort near Bangalore in Congress-ruled Karnataka, over 40 Gujarat Congress MLAs are going to return back to home state today morning. Departure time of their flight to Ahmedabad is 2.40 am while arrival time is around 4.20 am. Congress MLAs will be taken to Neejanand farm near Anand in Central Gujarat where their family members will come to celebrate Raksha Bandhan today. The MLAs will go to capital Gandhinagar tomorrow to cast their votes for three-seat Rajya Sabha election. The MLAs were taken to Bangalore after resignations of six Congress MLAs from the party ahead of Rajya Sabha polls. Some of these six MLAs have joined BJP. One of them is BJP candidate in Rajya Sabha polls against Congress candidate Ahmed Patel. Seven more Congress MLAs who refused to go to Bangalore are also likely to vote against Congress candidate.

Congress Chief Whip Shailesh Parmar had demanded police security for MLAs for till the end of two-day assembly session beginning tomorrow. In accordance to this request, the State DGP of Gujarat Police has arranged bandobast at Ahmedabad airport from 8.00 am yesterday under which local police station official and his fource along with ACP F division and ACP IJ Patel(Special Branch) are on two-shift duty at the airport. They are also joined by four police inspectors from control room. State Reserve Police(SRP) platoon has also been deployed at the airport in order to give security to Congress MLAs. Each MLA will be given one PSO. 15 pilot and 15 escort cars are also deployed at airport. 4 SML, 3 full size 52-seater buses are also deployed at the airport. Each piloting vehicle will have wireless set, one assistant sub inspector, one head constable, one constable and one home guard jawan. Each escort vehicle will have one sub assistant sub inspector, head constable, two constables and armed constable. If MLAs choose to travel in group, they will have two DySPs of SRP in pilot-escort vehicles. DCP zone 4 and 6 are asked to be on duty at airport one by one. If any MLA wishes to go to some place separately, he/she would be allotted ACP by DCP Traffic. DCP zone -4 has been asked to set up a help desk at airport so that MLAs can find their PSOs.

Congress party has form its own side has arranged its student wing National Student Union of India(NSUI) youths for protection of MLAs with scores of cars.

Arrangements at Neejanand resort are supervised by state party chief Bharatsinh Solanki.Private security service has been hired for security arrangements within the Neejanand farm and its entrance.

Meanwhile Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha seat Ahmed Patel arrived today at Taj Hotel in Ahmedabad where he will be camping at least till Wednesday.

Polling for Rajya Sabha election is scheduled to take place on August 8. Counting will also take place on the same day.

176 MLAs including 44 Congress MLAs who were in Bangalore, 7 pro-Shankersinh/BJP Congress MLAs who didn’t go to Bangalore, 2 NCP MLAs, 1 JDU MLA, 1 GPP MLA and 121 BJP MLAs are eligible to cast votes in three-seat Rajya Sabha polls in which BJP president Amit Shah, union minister Smriti Irani, present Rajya Sabha MP and political secretary of Congress party’s national president Ahmed Patel and former Chief Whip of Gujarat Congress in the assembly Balwantsinh Rajput who is also father in law of former leader of opposition Shankersinh Vaghela’s grand daughter are the candidate in this election which is being deeply observed with great interest nationwide. Winning mark as per today is 45 votes but it may change as per the number of valid ballots post voting, before counting.

DeshGujarat