Jaishankar, two other BJP candidates elected to Rajya Sabha 'uncontested' from Gujarat
Apart from Jaishankar, the other two BJP candidates elected to the Upper House of Parliament for a 6-year term are Kesridevsinh Jhala and Babubhai Desai.
Three candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, were on Monday declared elected "uncontested" to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, officials said.
Apart from Jaishankar, the other two BJP candidates elected to the Upper House of Parliament for a 6-year term are Kesridevsinh Jhala and Babubhai Desai.
For the career diplomat-turned-politician, who was inducted into the Union Cabinet in 2019, this will be the second term in the Rajya Sabha from the BJP-ruled state. Returning Officer Reeta Mehta said the three candidates have been declared as being elected "uncontested".
Kesridevsinh Digvijaysinh Jhala, Desai Babubhai Jesangbhai, and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar Krishnaswami "have been declared elected uncontested on July 17," the RO said in a declaration on the National eVidhan Application website.
Monday (July 17) was the last date to withdraw nomination forms, and if required, polling was to take place on July 24.
The Opposition Congress had announced it would not field candidates for polls to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat as it did not have enough MLAs in the 182-member Assembly.
Jaishankar had filed his nomination form on July 10, while Jhala and Desai submitted their papers on July 12.
Two sitting Raya Sabha MPs from Gujarat, Jugalji Thakor and Dinesh Anavadiya -- whose term was to end soon -- were not renominated by the BJP which instead fielded Jhala and Desai this time.
The saffron party had won a record 156 seats in the Assembly polls held late last year, while the Congress saw its worst performance since the state was formed by managing to get just 17 seats.
Derek, Saket, 4 other TMC leaders
All seven candidates - six of the Trinamool Congress including Derek O'Brien and Saket Gokhale and one from the BJP - were elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament on Monday, West Bengal Assembly officials said.
Six Rajya Sabha seats of the state are scheduled to go to the polls on July 24, the tenures of which are going to end in August.
A by-election was also supposed to be held in another RS seat.
"After the scrutiny of nomination papers, the assembly secretary today announced that all six candidates of the TMC and one of the BJP have been elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed," an assembly official said.
Among those of TMC who got elected to Rajya Sabha were Derek O'Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Dola Sen.
O'Brien, an MP since 2011, is the TMC's leader in Rajya Sabha, while Ray, who was first sent to the Upper House of Parliament in 2012 is the deputy chief whip.
Sen, a senior leader and trade unionist, became an MP in 2017.
The newcomers on the list were Bangla Sanskriti Mancha president Samirul Islam, the TMC's Alipurduar district president Prakash Chik Baraik, and RTI activist and TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale.
Gokhale was elected in the by-poll to a Rajya Sabha seat that became vacant following the resignation of former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro as a TMC MP in April.
Ananta Rai 'Maharaj' became the BJP's first elected member of the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. He has earlier been demanding a separate state of 'Greater Cooch Behar' to be carved out of the northern part of the state.
The TMC has 216 MLAs in the 294-member assembly and enjoys the support of five BJP legislators, who switched over to the ruling party but are yet to resign from the House.
The saffron party has 70 lawmakers in the assembly.
According to the number, out of the six seats whose tenure is going to expire, the TMC was supposed to get five, and the BJP one. Gokhale got elected in the by-poll.
"The most important matter in Parliament is debate. We aim to ensure that there is a proper debate on all the bills and not just bills being passed through a voice vote," Gokhale said.
Get Latest Business News, Stock Market Updates and Videos; Check your tax outgo through Income Tax Calculator and save money through our Personal Finance coverage. Check Business Breaking News Live on Zee Business Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe on YouTube.
08:58 PM IST