Supreme Court to hear today Congress plea on Rajya Sabha bypolls in Gujarat at one go

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear Gujarat Congress' plea challenging the Election Commission's decision to hold separate bypolls to two Rajya Sabha seats in the state. The opposition party had sought the court's intervention for simultaneous polls for the two Rajya Sabha seats which fell vacant after the election of BJP chief Amit Shah and Smriti Irani as Lok Sabha members.
Avacation bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Surya Kant listed the case for Wednesday.
Congress moved the Supreme Court seeking simultaneous polls for the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state, while accusing the NDA government of influencing the EC to hold separate polls to enable BJP corner both in "breach of the spirit" of proportional representation.
The petition, filed by leader of opposition in Gujarat assembly Pareshbai Dhanani, said holding of separate polls for the two seats would deny Congress one of the seats which it is entitled to as per its strength in the assembly and as per law mandating proportional representation with single transferable vote in Rajya Sabha.
Currently, in 182-member Gujarat assembly, BJP has 100 MLAs and Congress, 71.
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References

1. ^{^} Supreme Court (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
2. ^{^} Election Commission (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
3. ^{^} Rajya Sabha (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
4. ^{^} Amit Shah (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
5. ^{^} Smriti Irani (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

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