3 min readNew DelhiFeb 21, 2024 04:52 AM IST
First published on: Feb 21, 2024 at 04:51 AM IST
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda, new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on the remaining 15 seats on February 27.
The BJP has won the highest number of 20 seats, followed by the Congress (6), Trinamool Congress (4), YSR Congress (3), RJD (2), BJD (2) and NCP, Shiv Sena, BRS and JD(U) one each.
As there were no other candidates in the fray on these 41 seats, the respective returning officers declared them winners on the last date of withdrawal of nominations.
The biennial elections for the 56 seats were announced on February 27. While 50 members will complete their term on April 2, six will retire on April 3.
Nadda and three other BJP nominees — Jasvantsinh Parmar, Mayank Nayak and diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia —were declared winners from Gujarat. The Congress, which has only 15 MLAs, and other opposition parties had preferred not to put up candidates against the BJP, which has 156 legislators in the 182-member Assembly.
From Rajasthan, Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed, as were BJP’s Chunnilal Garasiya and Madan Rathore.
Sonia Gandhi, J P Nadda, Ashok Chavan, Milind Deora. (File Photo)
All the six candidates from Maharashtra — BJP’s Chavan, who joined the party last Tuesday after quitting the Congress, Medha Kulkarni and Ajit Gopchhade; Shiv Sena’s Milind Deora, who also quit the Congress last month, Praful Patel (NCP) and Chandrakant Handore (Cong) — were elected unopposed.
In Bihar, JD(U)’s Sanjay Kumar Jha, BJP’s Dharmshila Gupta and Bhim Singh, RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha and Sanjay Yadav and Congress’ Akhilesh Prasad Singh won.
From West Bengal, TMC’s Sushmita Dev, Sagarika Ghose, Mamata Thakur and Md Nadimul Haque and Samik Bhattacharya of the BJP were declared winners.
Union minister 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 bagged four seats for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, while Ashok Singh of Congress also won unopposed.
From Odisha, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw (BJP) and BJD’s Debashish Samantray and Subhashish Khuntia won.
YSR Congress candidates — G Babu Rao, Y V Subba Reddy and M Raghunath Reddy — won all the three seats in Andhra Pradesh, while in neighbouring Telangana, the ruling Congress bagged two seats — Renuka Chowdhury and Anil Kumar Yadav — and the BRS won one seat — V Ravichandra.
BJP nominees in Uttarakhand (Mahendra Bhatt), Subhash Barala (Haryana), Devendra Pratap Singh (Chhattisgarh) were elected unopposed.
Sonia Gandhi and J P Nadda 
Sonia Gandhi, J P Nadda, Ashok Chavan, Milind Deora. (File Photo)
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