SC rejects Congress plea for single poll for 2 Gujarat Rajya Sabha Seats

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea by the opposition Congress to have joint voting for two Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat vacated by BJP chief Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani. The Election Commission had declared that polling would be conducted on the same day to fill up both seats, but voting will be separate.

Gujarat Congress legislature party leader Paresh Dhanani had moved SC seeking its intervention to “correct” the process.

The party had, through senior advocate Vivek Tankha, argued that separate voting would destroy the system of proportional representation through a single transferable vote. In effect, it would become a first past the post system, the party had claimed.


The top court had then issued notices to the EC seeking its formal views on the Congress plea.

On Tuesday, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, assisted by EC standing counsel Amit Sharma, appeared for the EC to argue that right to contest in any election was not a fundamental right, rather it was a statutory right.