image

Rajya Sabha adjourned over Congress-BJP's ruckus over Gujarat MLA defections

by IBNS 31 Jul 2017, 09:15 am

New Delhi, July 31 (IBNS): Rajya Sabha on the first working day of the week was adjourned after the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) created a ruckus with the former accusing the latter of engineering MLA defections in Gujarat.

Congress accused the BJP of bribing its MLAs in Gujarat ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll on August 8.
 
In a major blow to the Congress after the resignation of Shankersinh Vaghela,  five of its legislators in the Gujarat Assembly resigned within two days from Thursday.

One of the legislators who has quit is Balwantsinh Rajput, the Congress' chief whip in the assembly. 
 
Within hours of resignation, the three MLAs who left Congress on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
 
Following the political crisis in the state, the Congress has flown 44  MLAs from Gujarat to a Bengaluru resort to prevent horsetrading with their legislators ahead of the Rajya Sabha election.
 
However, BJP has termed the Congress' step to prevent defection of their MLAs as a "kidnap".
 
The BJP has nominated Amit Shah, Smriti Irani and former Congressman  Balwantsinh Rajput for the three vacant Rajya Sabha seats, while the Congress has again nominated Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Sonia Gandhi.