Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party's media cell head Pawan Khera were among four candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka on Thursday, according to reports from UNI. The elections were announced to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from the state because the terms of current members end on June 25. Former union minister K Rahman Khan's son Mansoor Ali Khan and BJP leader Prof M Nagaraja were also declared elected for a Rajya Sabha term of six years. It will be a maiden entry into parliament for Khera, who had started his career as political secretary to former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit and had worked closely with the war room of the Congress party ahead of its 2023 assembly polls campaign in Karnataka.
14 candidates were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Thursday, with 18 of 26 seats decided without contest, according to Bhaskar English. The winners include 10 BJP candidates, 4 Congress candidates, 3 TDP candidates and 1 Jana Sena candidate. The BJP has gained two seats from these uncontested elections. Among the elected candidates were Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and media and publicity chief Pawan Khera from Karnataka. All but three of the 27 seats for Rajya Sabha were decided with NDA candidates declared elected unopposed in 19 seats and Congress in the remaining five.
In Gujarat, all four BJP candidates - Rajubhai Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukeshbhai Rathwa and Jitendra Kanjariya - were elected unopposed as no other nominee was in the fray. 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. In Rajasthan, all three candidates - BJP's Satish Poonia and Alka Gurjar, and Congress's Neeraj Dangi - were elected unopposed. The BJP secured two of the three seats in Rajasthan, while the Congress retained its seat through Dangi's re-election, maintaining the current 10 Rajya Sabha seats evenly divided between the two parties.
Elections for two seats in Jharkhand and one seat each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu will be held on June 18, as reported by Bhaskar English. In Jharkhand, three candidates - JMM's Baidyanath Ram, Congress nominee Pranav Jha and Independent Parimal Nathwani - 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. For the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Mizoram, ruling Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) spokesperson K Laltluangkima and main opposition Mizo National Front's Zothansangi Hmar are in the fray. The Congress is expected to win one seat, the BJP eight, the JMM two, and the TVK one in the remaining contests.
