Rajya Sabha polls: Congress MLAs to be flown back to Gujarat on Monday, says Shaktisinh Gohil

Gujarat Congress legislators, camping at a private resort near Bengaluru, will be flown back to their home state on Monday morning, said Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil.

“All the 44 legislators will be flown back to Gujarat early morning. The flight carrying all of them is scheduled to land in Gujarat around 5 am,” he said.

Gohil refuted reports that the legislators would be flown to Delhi to meet the Congress president.

#Exclusive: #GujaratMLAs leaving from #Bengaluru resort pic.twitter.com/4trEx9bTsO

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The Gujarat Congress had sent 44 of its MLAs in Bengaluru on July 29 to fend off “poaching” attempts by the BJP, ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls, in which Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is contesting.

“We have the numbers. The BJP don’t have the numbers. We will see to it that Patel wins the poll,” Gohil said.

Earlier, Gohil had alleged that it was the BJP which was spreading “canards” that the Congress MLAs would first be flown to the national capital to meet Gandhi.

He also alleged that the saffron party was spreading “false reports” that the MLAs would use the ‘NOTA’ option in the polls to defeat Patel.

The Congress has objected to the ‘NOTA’ option in the Rajya Sabha polls, which is being seen as a prestige battle for the party in Gujarat.

Gohil asserted that all the Congress MLAs were “united” and that they would vote for Patel in the August 8 election.

Six of the 57 Congress MLAs in Gujarat have quit the party recently, with three of them joining the BJP on July 28.