GANDHINAGAR: Three BJP candidates alongwith Congress's Shaktisinh Gohil were declared winners of the election to four Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat, held on Friday.
The counting was delayed due to objections raised by the Congress which demanded that votes cast by two BJP MLAs be invalidated.
The Election Commission of India rejected the demand, upholding the report given by the election observer.
"Abhay Bharadwaj, Ramilaben Bara and Narhari Amin of the BJP have won besides Shaktisinh Gohil of the Congress," said Additional Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat Ashok Manek.
Former Union minister Bharatsinh Solanki, a second candidate fielded by the Congress, lost.
"Our candidates Abhay Bharadwaj and Ramilaben Bara got 36 votes each and third candidate Amin got 32 votes in first preference and after addition of second preference votes his total came to 35.98 votes," said deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.
"Gohil of Congress got 36 votes and Solanki got 30 votes plus some 1.99 second preference votes which added up to 31.9. So Solanki lost," Patel said.
No votes were invalidated by the Election Commission, the BJP leader added.
Voting began at 9 am and continued till 4 pm. 170 out of 172 MLAs exercised their franchise. Two Bharatiya Tribal Party MLAs did not turn up to vote.