Eleven candidates, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’ Brien, were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
No voting will be held for six seats in West Bengal, three in Gujarat and one seat in Goa as no opposing candidates have filed nominations. The last date to withdraw nominations was July 17. The elections were slated to be held on July 24.
Three Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who filed their nominations from Gujarat – Jaishankar Babu Desai and Kesaridevsinh Jhala – were elected uncontested. In West Bengal, six candidates from the Trinamool Congress – Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Prakash Chik Baraik, Saket Gokhale, Samirul Islam, Dola Sen and O’ Brien – were elected unopposed.
Gokhale was elected in a bye-election necessitated by the resignation of former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro as a Trinamool Congress MP in April.
Meanwhile, Ananta Rai became the BJP’s first Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal.
The BJP’s Sadanand Shet Tanavade won the Rajya Sabha seat from Goa.
The Rajya Sabha currently has 245 members. On July 25, seven seats will fall vacant, bringing down the total number of seats to 238. Four out of the seven seats are in Jammu and Kashmir, two are for nominated candidates and one is in Uttar Pradesh.
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