Marking her first stint in the Rajya Sabha, senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament from Rajasthan on Tuesday. BJP national president JP Nadda, Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, L Murugan and other candidates from different parties were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
In Gujarat, all four candidates of the BJP were elected to the Rajya Sabha uncontested. BJP national president JP Nadda, diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia, Mayank Nayak, and Dr Jaswantsinh Parmar have been declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.
As no other candidates had filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat on four vacant seats, the three leaders were elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed. Debashish Samantaray, Subhasish Khuntia, and Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, all the three candidates in Odisha were elected unopposed.
Uttarakhand BJP chief Mahendra Bhatt was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. His unopposed election to the Upper House seat was a foregone conclusion as no other candidate entered the fray.
All six candidates from Maharashtra in the fray for Rajya Sabha elections, including Congress turncoat Ashok Chavan, were declared elected unopposed.
Among the six, the BJP had fielded three nominees, including Chavan, and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and NCP one each. The Opposition Congress had fielded one nominee.
The BJP nominees declared elected unopposed include Chavan, former MLA Medha Kulkarni, and RSS worker Ajit Gopchade. The nominees of Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party are ex-Congress MP Milind Deora and Praful Patel, respectively.
The Congress had nominated Dalit leader Chandrakant Handore, the lone candidate from the Opposition. All six candidates for Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar, three of them from BJP-led NDA and as many belonging to the opposition INDIA bloc, were declared elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament.
The Vidhan Sabha secretariat handed over certificates to JD(U)’s Sanjay Kumar Jha, besides ally BJP’s Dharmshila Gupta and Bhim Singh.
Certificates were also handed over to RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha and Sanjay Yadav, in addition to Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress. While Manoj Kumar Jha and Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who heads the state unit of Congress, will enjoy second consecutive terms, the remaining four shall be making their parliamentary debut.
All five candidates in the fray for Rajya Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh, including Union minister L Murugan and three others from BJP, were unopposed elected. All five candidates, including four from the BJP and one from the Congress, were declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha by the Returning Officer on Tuesday.
The four candidates from BJP include Union minister L Murugan, Valmiki Dham Ashram head Umesh Nath Maharaj, Kisan Morcha’s national vice president Banshilal Gurjar, and Madhya Pradesh BJP’s women wing president Maya Naroliya.
The lone nominee of Congress to be declared unopposed is MP party unit treasurer Ashok Singh.
Former Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Haryana as No other candidate had entered the fray.