Congress leader Sonia Gandhi
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Top leaders Sonia Gandhi and JP Nadda were among 41 people who were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while the stage is set for contests in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh where the BJP and JD(S) have fielded extra candidates.
Two Union Ministers Ashwani Vaishnaw and L Murugan also won the elections unopposed even as the BJP denied seats to union ministers like Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Purushotham Rupala amid indications that the BJP will field them in Lok Sabha elections.
With none withdrawing from the contest on the last day of withdrawal of nominations, 11 people will vie for 10 seats in UP while five will fight for four seats in Karnataka and two contestants will square off each other for one seat in Himachal Pradesh.
In Karnataka, Congress will have to fight for the third seat while in Himachal, it will have to fight for one. Samajwadi Party will have to contest the polls to secure the third seat in UP.
The voting in these three states for 15 seats will be held on February 27. Elections were announced for 56 seats that are becoming vacant in the first week of April.
So far, BJP has won 20 seats while Congress bagged six, Trinamool Congress 4, YSR Congress 3, BJD 2, RJD 2 and NCP, Shiv Sena, BRS and JD(U) one each. Of this, the I.N.D.I.A bloc could count only 12 while the rest 29 is going to the BJP-led NDA.
Former Congress president Sonia was elected unopposed from Rajasthan, marking her departure from Lok Sabha where she spent the last 25 years, along with BJP’s Madan Rathore and Chunni Lal Garasiya.
BJP president Nadda also got elected unopposed but this time from Gujarat along with three other BJP leaders Jashwantsinh Parmar, Mayank Nayak and Govind Dholakia. He was representing Himachal Pradesh but Congress’ Assembly victory meant BJP could not get him re-elected from his home state.
The BJP bagged all the four seats while Congress lost its sitting MP owing its dismal numbers in the Assembly.
Union Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw got unopposed from Odisha, thanks to BJD not fielding a candidate despite having numbers, amid allegations by the Congress of an alliance between both the parties. Two BJD nominees Debashish Samantry and Subhashish Khuntia were also elected without a contest.
Maharashtra, which witnessed high profile cross-overs in the past one month, saw former Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Milind Deora winning on BJP and Shiv Sena tickets respectively unopposed. NCP’s Praful Patel, who chose Ajit Pawar over Sharad Pawar, as well as two other BJP candidates Medha Kulkarni and Ajit Gopchhade and Congress’ Chandrakant Handore were also chosen as Rajya Sabha MPs.
From West Bengal, Trinamool Congress won four seats – Sagarika Ghose, Sushmita Dev, Mamata Bala Thakur and Nadimul Haque – while BJP won one seat – Samik Bhattacharya. Congress lost its sitting seat, as it has no MLA in the Assembly and Trinamool Congress unwilling to offer a seat.
In Bihar, JD(U) lost one sitting seat while the BJP gained one. RJD – Manoj K Jha and Sanjay Jha – managed to retain two seats while Congress’ sitting MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh managed to keep his seat. JD(U)’ Sanjay Kumar Jha, a close confidante of Nitish Kumar, and BJP’s Bhim Singh and Dharmshila Gupta also won without any opposition.
Union Minister L Murugan, Umesh Nath Maharaj, Maya Naroliya and Bansilal Gurjar of BJP and Ashok Singh of Congress also won unopposed. BJP’s Mahendra Bhatt and Subhash Barala won unopposed in Uttarakhand and Haryana respectively.
All the three seats in Andhra Pradesh were won unopposed by YSR Congress, which increased its tally from one to three – G Babu Rao, YV Subba Reddy and M Raghunath REddy. BJP and TDP lost their seats in the state.
In neighbouring Telangana, BRS lost two sitting seats which went to ruling Congress whose Renuka Chowdhury and Anil Kumar Yadav won. BRS had to settle with one seat of V Ravichandra.