Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party member KJ Alphons was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan on Thursday, ANI reported. Neither the state Congress nor the other opposition parties had fielded a candidate for the seat.
The seat was vacant since former MP M Venkaiah Naidu was elected the vice president on August 5.
The minister of state for tourism had filed his nomination papers for the seat on Monday. He had thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
Alphons Kannanthanam, an IAS officer of the 1979 batch, was appointed the minister of state (independent charge) for tourism and minister of state for electronics and information technology on September 3. He was the commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority when he was dubbed the “demolition man” for razing around 15,000 illegal buildings.
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