Shaktisinh Gohil, the man who clinched a win for Congress
Many factors combined together led to the victory for Congress' Ahmed Patel in the Gujarat RS elections, but the role of the party's polling agent can't be overlooked. Shaktisinh Gohil was the one who first raised the issue of two party MLAs violating rules and showing their votes to BJP leaders. His experience as a lawyer presumably came of help in the subsequent drama.
What happened on polling day?
According to rules, a voter can show his ballot paper only to their own party representative. But two rebel Congress MLAs violated laws. "I saw both Raghvji Patel and Bhola Gohil flashing their ballot papers to the BJP's polling agent" in the presence of Amit Shah, 57-year-old Shaktisinh said. As polling neared end at around 4pm, Shaktisinh sought invalidation of the two votes.
Going against RO's order, the EC upholds electoral law
Three hours later, Deputy CM Nitin Patel informed the Congress the supervising Returning Officer had dismissed their plea. Then senior leaders in Delhi approached the EC headquarters. Thus started a seven-hour battle. Finally, the EC, in a landmark order, decided to cancel the two votes.
