AHMEDABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat which had fallen vacant following the demise of the sitting members of Parliament including Congress’s Ahmed Patel. 

BJP's Dineshchamdra Jemalbhai Ananvadiya and Rambhai Harjibhai Mokariya were declared winners unopposed to the Upper House after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations expired.

Congress decided not to put a candidate as it did not have the numbers after the Election Commission's decision to hold 'two separate byelections' to fill the vacancies from the state which has 180 member assembly members out of which Congress has 65 MLAs while BJP has 111.

The elections to the two seats were necessitated following the demise of Congress stalwart Ahmed Patel and BJP's Abhay Ganpatray Bhardwaj. Both of them passed away after complications due to COVID-19, while Patel died in November last year in a Gurugram hospital, Bharadwaj died in Chennai in December 2020.

Patel who was considered closest aide to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi served the party in various capacities including its treasurer and had been elected to the Rajya Sabha five times from Gujarat. In 2017 he had been elected in a hard-fought contest that was watched very keenly by political observers. 

Bhardwaj, a practicing lawyer from Rajkot was elected to the upper house in June 2020 on a BJP nomination.