Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Khera Among 24 Elected Unopposed To Rajya Sabha

Bengaluru: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party's media cell head Pawan Khera besides BJP leaders Satish Poonia and Tarun Chugh were among 24 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Thursday. All but three of the 27 seats for Rajya Sabha were decided with NDA candidates declared elected unopposed in 19 and Congress in the remaining five. Elections for two seats in Jharkhand, where a keen contest is on the cards, and one seat in Mizoram will be held on June 18.The scrutiny of nominations for elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats in 10 states besides bye-elections to one seat each in Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil Nadu was on Thursday. All the candidates declared elected unopposed were handed over winning certificates by the respective

returning officers.Elections would be held for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand, where three candidates - JMM's Baidyanath Ram, Congress nominee Pranav Jha and Independent Parimal Nathwani, a director at Reliance Industries who has the support of the BJP, are in the fray. The INDIA bloc has 56 MLAs in Jharkhand and each candidate needs to get 28 first preference votes to win. The BJP has 21 MLAs along with one each from the JDU, LJP (Ram Vilas) and the All Jharkhand Students Union.The Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha has one seat, and Nathwani needs three cross-votes to win. He had been a two-term Rajya Sabha member from Jharkhand between 2008 and 2020, and is currently a YSRCP MP in the Upper House. His term ends on June 21.For election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Mizoram, ruling Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) spokesperson K Laltluangkima and main opposition Mizo National Front's (MNF) Zothansangi Hmar, an advocate and a writer, are in the fray.The BJP, which has two members in the 40-member Mizoram assembly, and the Congress having only one legislator, did not field their candidates. ZPM now has 27 legislators in the present assembly, while the MNF holds 10 seats.Also Read: Why Meenakshi Natarajan's Rajya Sabha Nomination Was Rejected — And How It Changes BJP's Numbers GameIn Madhya Pradesh, the returning officer declared the three BJP candidates as elected unopposed in the biennial elections, even though Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan has moved the Supreme Court after he nomination was cancelled by the returning officer. Her plea would be heard by the top court on Friday.Chugh and Rajneesh Agarwal of the BJP and Mahesh Kewat, an independent backed by the BJP, were declared elected unopposed. Three Congress candidates - Kharge, AICC secretary Mansoor Ali Khan and Khera - and BJP's M Nagaraja were declared elected "unanimously" to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.Elections were announced to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from the state because the terms of current members -- Iranna Kadadi and Narayana Koragappa (both from the BJP), Kharge, and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda from JD(S) - end on June 25.

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With this round of Rajya Sabha elections, Deve Gowda's long innings in Parliament spanning over five decades will draw to an end. In Gujarat, all four candidates of the ruling BJP -- Rajubhai Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukeshbhai Rathwa and Jitendra Kanjariya -- were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha as no other nominee was in the fray.Main Opposition Congress did not field its candidate.In Andhra Pradesh, all four NDA candidates, three from TDP and one from Jana Sena, were elected unopposed.Returning Officer R Vanitha Rani announced the election of Bashyam Ramakrishna, Chintakayala Vijay and Sana Satish Babu (all TDP) and Lingamaneni Ramesh (Jana Sena) to the upper house. Vijay is the son of Andhra Pradesh Speaker Chintakayala Ayyannapatrudu.In Rajasthan, all three candidates - BJP's Satish Poonia and Alka Gurjar, and Congress's Neeraj Dangi - were elected unopposed. The terms of Dangi and BJP MPs Rajendra Gehlot and Ravneet Singh are set to end on June 21. National People's Party (NPP) national vice president James K Sangma was also elected unopposed to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Meghalaya.James Sangma, the brother of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, was declared elected after no other candidate remained in the fray. The Rajya Sabha seat fell vacant following the completion of the term of Wanweiroy Kharlukhi.In Manipur, BJP state chief Adhikarimayum Sharda Devi was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha. Senior BJP leader Tai Tagak from Arunachal Pradesh was declared elected unopposed to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state. For the bye-election for lone Rajya Sabha seat in Maharashtra vacated by Sunetra Pawar, NCP's Rajendra Jain was elected unopposed.In Odisha, BJP candidate Debashish Samantaray was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Samantaray, who joined the saffron party on May 26 after he quit the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and resigned as its MP from the Upper House of Parliament, was the only candidate in the fray for the by-election.Congress nominee Praveen Chakravarthy was declared elected unopposed from Tamil Nadu. AIADMK leader C Ve Shanmugam had resigned from his membership after he won the assembly election recently. Hence, the vacancy arose.Chakravarthy was backed by the ruling