BARWANI (MP): Congress MLA from Barwani, Ramesh Patel was today granted bail in a rape case, which has paved his way to vote in the crucial June 11 biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha.
Patel was granted bail by Justice J K Jain from the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, his lawyer advocate P K Mukati said. The lawmmaker was arrested in connection with an alleged rape case four months ago.
Congress has got 57 MLAs in the House and it needs just one more MLA to sail through. Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Kamal Nath will arrive in the state capital today and camp here till the voting on June 11 to ensure that party candidate Vivek Tankha sails through without any hiccups.
BJP has fielded noted journalist M J Akbar and senior party strategist Anil Madhav Dave as its candidates and both are set to win the two seats on the basis of party's strength in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. The party's third nominee Vinod Gotia, who has entered the fray as an Independent candidate with an aim to make things tough for Tankha, may now feel the heat after the court allowed Patel to vote in the RS polls.
The saffron party needs nine extra votes to ensure the victory of Gotia. Presently, it has 49 surplus votes excluding Rajendra Meshram, who has been forbidden to exercise his franchise following a Supreme Court order, an official of the Assembly told PTI.
Bahujan Samaj Party has already issued a whip to its four MLAs to vote in favour of Tankha. The Assembly has a total strength of 230 MLAs. BJP has 166 members followed by Congress (57), BSP (4) and Independents (3).