Jaishankar, O’Brien among 11 elected to Rajya Sabha uncontested

This is the second straight victory for Jaishankar in the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat.

S Jaishankar, Derek O'Brien

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien were among 11 candidates to be elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from three states on Monday.

While three BJP candidates – Babu Desai and Kesaridevsinh Jhala, apart from Jaishankar – were elected uncontested from Gujarat, O’Brien was among six TMC candidates to be elected from West Bengal.

A BJP candidate each also won from Goa and Bengal — Sadanand Shet Tanavade and Anant Maharaj, respectively.

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This is the second straight victory for Jaishankar in the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat. Desai and Jhala have been elected to the Upper House of Parliament for the first time.

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In Bengal, besides O’Brien, other TMC leaders who got elected to the Rajya Sabha on Monday were Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Dola Sen. The three newcomers on the TMC list were Bangla Sanskriti Mancha president Samirul Islam, the party’s Alipurduar district unit president and tribal leader Prakash Chik Baraik, and RTI activist and party spokesperson Saket Gokhale.

Gokhale has been elected in a by-election — necessitated by the resignation of former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro as a TMC MP in April. His term will be a limited one.

O’Brien, an MP since 2011, is the TMC’s leader in Rajya Sabha, and Ray is the party’s deputy chief whip in the House. Dola Sen, a senior TMC leader and trade unionist, became an MP in 2017.

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Ananta Rai ‘Maharaj’ became the BJP’s first elected member of the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. He has earlier been demanding a separate state of ‘Greater Cooch Behar’ to be carved out of the northern part of the state. —(With PTI)

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