Ahmedabad: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar and BJP leader Jugalji Thakor filed their papers for the Rajya Sabha byelections in Gandhinagar on Tuesday. The seats were vacated by BJP president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani who won the Lok Sabha polls.
The elections will be held on July 5. Tuesday was the last day to file nominations. The Cong-ress has nominated former MLA Chandrika Chu-dasama and Gaurav Pandya.
Since the Election Commission has issued separate notifications, the election will be held separately. The BJP will win both the seats given its strength; If the elections were held simultaneously, both the parties would have won one each.
Earlier the Supreme Court refused to entertain the Congress’ plea against the Election Commiss-ion’s decision to hold separate elections. The plea was filed by opposition leader Paresh Dhanani.
The court gave the Congress permission to file an election petition in the High Court after the conclusion of the bypolls.
