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The Supreme Court has rejected a petition by the Congress against holding separate bypolls to two seats in Gujarat that have fallen vacant after BJP’s Amit Shah and Smriti Irani moved to the Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar and Amethi respectively.
The Election Commission has fixed July 5 for the separate Rajya Sabha by-elections to the two seats. The petition was filed by the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat assembly, Pareshbhai Dhanani.
The BJP had named External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as its candidate for a Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat, hours after he joined the party. Jaishankar on Tuesday filed his nomination for Rajya Sabha along with Jugalji Mathurji Thakor, who is the party’s candidate for the second seat from Gujarat.
The Congress said that holding the elections for the two seats separately would be against the rules. The poll body opposed the Congress’s request saying that it can’t approach the top court under Article 32 of the Constitution.
