Rajya Sabha: 41 elected unopposed, elections for 16 held today
Elections to the Rajya Sabha were held today. Of the 57 seats that went to the polls, candidates to 41 were elected unopposed from 11 states, whose names were declared a few days back. The competition, therefore, is for the rest of the 16 seats, and it is a closely-fought competition.
The elections to these 16 were held in four states—Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana.
As the name suggests, ‘Rajya Sabha’ or ‘Council of States’, only elected MLAs are allowed to vote to elect Rajya Sabha members of Parliament.
Among the ones who are contesting today are Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal of BJP, Randeep Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik of Congress, and Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena.
Of those who were elected unopposed, 13 belong to BJP, four each to Congress (including heavyweights P Chidambaram and Rajeev Shukla) and YSR Congress, three each to BJD and DMK, two each to SP, AIADMK, TRS, RJD and AAP, one each to RLD (with SP backing), JD(U) and JMM, and one independent (with SP backing).
