BJP's tribal nominee Sampatiya Uike was on Monday elected unopposed on the lone vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh. Returning Officer and Principal Secretary A P Singh declared Uike elected as she was the only nominee left in the fray on the last day of the withdrawal of the nominations this afternoon, a state assembly secretariat official said. On July 26, one Dr K Padmarajan filed his nomination papers as an Independent, but it was found invalid during the scrutiny. The bypoll was necessitated following the death of environment minister Anil Madhav Dave in May. Uike (50), the present district Panchayat president in Mandla, had unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections in 2013. Out of the total 11 Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, eight seats are currently represented by the BJP while the Congress holds three.
