Rajya Sabha
Among the 41 candidates elected without opposition to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday were former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chairman J P Nadda, new party entry Ashok Chavan, and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan. On February 27, elections will be held in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh for the remaining 15 seats.
With twenty seats, the BJP has secured the most seats. The Congress has six, the Trinamool Congress has four, the YSR Congress has three, RJD has two, BJD has two, and NCP, Shiv Sena, BRS, and JD(U) have one a piece.
On the final day of nomination withdrawal, the returning officers for each of the 41 seats proclaimed the winners since there were no other contenders running for those seats. On February 27, the 56 seats up for election were announced for the biennial elections. Six members will retire on April 3, while 50 members will finish their terms on April 2.
Nadda was proclaimed the victor from Gujarat, along with three other BJP nominees: Jasvantsinh Parmar, Mayank Nayak, and diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia. With only fifteen MLAs, the Congress and other opposition parties have chosen not to field candidates to challenge the BJP, which controls eighty-six legislators in the Assembly.
Chunnilal Garasiya and Madan Rathore of the BJP, as well as Sonia Gandhi, were elected without opposition from Rajasthan.
All six Maharashtra candidates—Chavan of the BJP, who entered the party on Tuesday after leaving the Congress, Medha Kulkarni, and Ajit Gopchhade; Milind Deora of the Shiv Sena, who also left the Congress last month, Praful Patel of the NCP, and Chandrakant Handore of the Cong—were elected without facing any opposition.
Sanjay Kumar Jha of the JD(U), Dharmshila Gupta and Bhim Singh of the BJP, Manoj Kumar Jha and Sanjay Yadav of the RJD, and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress prevailed in Bihar. Sushmita Dev of the TMC, Sagarika Ghose, Mamata Thakur, Md. Nadimul Haque, and Samik Bhattacharya of the BJP were proclaimed the victors from West Bengal.
The BJP gained four seats in Madhya Pradesh, while Ashok Singh of the Congress won without opposition. The BJP’s candidates included Union minister Murugan, head of the Valmiki Dham Ashram Umesh Nath Maharaj, national vice president of Kisan Morcha Banshilal Gurjar, and president of the Madhya Pradesh BJP’s women’s wing, Maya Naroliya.
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw (BJP) and Debashish Samantray and Subhashish Khuntia of the BJD became victorious from Odisha
Three seats in Andhra Pradesh were won by YSR Congress candidates G Babu Rao, Y V Subba Reddy, and M Raghunath Reddy. In neighboring Telangana, the ruling Congress gained two seats, Renuka Chowdhury and Anil Kumar Yadav, and the BRS won one, V Ravichandra.
