Rajya Sabha Elections: 24 out of 27 seats decided unopposed… NDA wins 19, Congress wins 5

New Delhi. Twenty-four candidates—including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and senior party leader Pawan Khera, as well as BJP leaders Satish Poonia and Tarun Chugh—were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Out of the 27 Rajya Sabha seats, the outcome for 24 was decided without a contest. Candidates from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were declared elected unopposed to 19 of these seats, while the remaining five went to the Congress.

Elections to be held for these seats
Elections for two seats in Jharkhand—where a close contest is expected—and one seat in Mizoram will be held on June 18. Scrutiny of nomination papers for 24 Rajya Sabha seats across ten states, as well as for by-elections to one seat each in Maharashtra, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu, took place on Thursday. The respective returning officers handed over certificates of election to all the candidates declared elected unopposed.

A thrilling contest ahead
Elections will be held for two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand, with three candidates in the fray: JMM’s Baidyanath Ram, Congress’s Pranav Jha, and independent candidate Parimal Nathwani. Nathwani is a director at Reliance Industries and enjoys the support of the BJP. The INDIA alliance holds 56 seats in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, and each candidate will require 28 first-preference votes to secure victory.

Meanwhile, the BJP has 21 MLAs. Additionally, Nitish Kumar’s party JD(U), the LJP (Ram Vilas), and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) each have one MLA. For the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Mizoram, K. Laltluangkima, spokesperson for the ruling Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), and Zothansangi Hmar from the main opposition party, Mizo National Front (MNF), are in the electoral fray. Major developments in MP
In the biennial Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, the Returning Officer declared all three BJP candidates—Tarun Chugh, Rajnish Agrawal, and Mahesh Kevat—elected unopposed.

Four candidates, including Congress President Kharge, were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka; one of them is a BJP candidate. Apart from Kharge, the newly elected members include Congress Secretary Mansoor Ali Khan, Kheda, and BJP’s M. Nagaraj. The terms of four sitting Rajya Sabha members from the state—Iranna Kadadi and Narayan Koragappa (both BJP), Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Deve Gowda—are set to expire on June 25, and elections were announced to fill these vacancies.

Situation in other states
With this round of Rajya Sabha elections, H.D. Deve Gowda’s parliamentary career, spanning over five decades, will come to an end. All four candidates from the ruling BJP were declared elected for the four seats from Gujarat. They include Rajubhai Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, and Jitendra Kanjariya.

All four NDA candidates from Andhra Pradesh were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Among the elected candidates, three belong to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and one to the Jana Sena. Returning Officer R. Vanitha Rani announced the unopposed election of Bashyam Ramakrishna, Lingamaneni Ramesh, C. Vijay, and Sana Satish Babu to the Upper House. Ramakrishna, Vijay, and Babu are from the TDP, while Ramesh is from the Jana Sena. Vijay is the son of Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker C. Ayyanna Patrudu.

Two BJP candidates and one Congress candidate were declared elected unopposed from Rajasthan. The Returning Officer declared BJP’s Satish Poonia and Alka Gurjar, along with Congress’s Neeraj Dangi, elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament.

James K. Sangma, National Vice President of the National People’s Party (NPP), was elected unopposed to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Meghalaya. James K. Sangma, brother of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, was declared elected unopposed to the Upper House in the biennial elections, as there were no other candidates in the fray. The Rajya Sabha seat had fallen vacant following the completion of Wanweiroy Kharlukhi’s tenure.

In Manipur, BJP state president Adhimayum Sharda Devi was declared elected unopposed to the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat. Senior BJP leader Tai Tagak was elected unopposed to the sole Rajya Sabha seat from Arunachal Pradesh. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Rajendra Jain was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra in a by-election.

In Odisha, BJP candidate Debashish Samantaray was declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Samantaray, who joined the BJP on May 26 after quitting the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and resigning as a member of the Upper House, was the sole candidate in this by-election. Congress candidate Praveen Chakravarty was declared elected unopposed from Tamil Nadu.

AIADMK leader C. Shanmugam had resigned from his Rajya Sabha membership on May 7, well before the scheduled end of his six-year term in 2028; he had been elected to the House in 2022. Chakravarty filed his nomination papers with the support of the ruling party. Officials declared his nomination valid on June 9, while the nomination papers of 12 independent candidates were rejected.