CONGRESS leader Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on Tuesday, officials said. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chunnilal Garasiya and Madan Rathore were also elected unopposed to the Upper House from the State, Assembly Secretary Mahaveer Prasad Sharma said. Tuesday was the last day for withdrawing nominations. As no other candidates were contesting, the three leaders were elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed, the officer said. It will be the 77-year-old Congress leader’s first term in the Upper House after serving five terms as a Lok Sabha MP. She was first elected as an MP in 1999 after taking over as the Congress President. She will be the second member of the Gandhi family to enter Rajya Sabha after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was a member of the Upper House from August 1964 to February 1967. BJP President J P Nadda and three other candidates of the party were also declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat on Tuesday.

 

There were four vacant Rajya Sabha seats in the State and as many candidates, all of the ruling BJP, had filed their nomination papers. As no other candidates had filed nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat on four vacant seats, Returning Officer Reeta Mehta declared all the four BJP candidates, including Nadda, elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament, an official said. Tuesday was the last date of withdrawal of nomination forms. Apart from Nadda, the three others candidates elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha were diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia, BJP leaders Jasvantsinh Parmar and Mayank Nayak. In Madhya Pradesh, all 5 candidates in the fray for Rajya Sabha polls, including Union Minister L Murugan and three others from BJP, were on Tuesday declared unopposed, an official said. They were declared unopposed as only five nominations were received for as many seats falling vacant till the last day of the withdrawal of nominations (February 20).

 

“All five candidates, including four from the BJP and one from the Congress, were declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha by the Returning Officer,” the official said. 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. Except for Umesh Nath Maharaj, the four candidates have collected their winning certificates from the returning officer, the official added. In Maharashtra all 6 candidates in the fray for Rajya Sabha polls, 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. A total of 56 members of Rajya Sabha from 15 States are retiring in April and the election to the seats will be held on February 27. The last date for filing nominations was February 15. The tenure of Rajya Sabha members Manmohan Singh (Congress) and Bhupendra Yadav (BJP) is ending on April 3. The third seat fell vacant after the BJP MP Kirodi Lal Meena resigned from the House in December after being elected MLA. The BJP has 115 members and the Congress 70 in the 200-member Assembly. There are 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan. After the results, the Congress has six members and the BJP four.