Haryana: BJP's Jangra and Gautam,

's Hooda elected unopposed

BJP's Indu Goswami elected to Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh

NEW DELHI: Sharad Pawar, deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh and Union minister Ramdas Athawale were among the several candidates who were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.In Bihar, all the five candidates for as many Rajya Sabha seats were declared elected unopposed as no other nominations were filed, Bihar assembly secretary-cum-returning officer Bateshwar Nath Pandey said."Certificates were handed over to all the five candidates after the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers at 3pm," he said.Two candidates each were from the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and one from the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ).Since no other candidate had filed nomination papers, the voting, which was scheduled on March 26, was done away with.Elections were necessitated for the seats as they were falling vacant next month upon the expiry of term of the sitting members all of whom belonged to the JD(U)-BJP combine in the state.The JD(U) candidates were Harivansh, who is currently the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and Ram Nath Thakur. They will be serving a second consecutive term.Harivansh is a veteran journalist, who has edited the Prabhat Khabar for long, and is considered a confidant of chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is also the JD(U)'s national president.Ram Nath Thakur is the son of former chief minister Karpoori Thakur, arguably the tallest OBC leader from Bihar who Kumar and other socialist leaders of his generation consider their political guru.BJP candidate Vivek Thakur, a former MLC who makes his parliamentary debut, is the son of former Union minister C P Thakur, whose Rajya Sabha tenure ends next month.The RJD candidates are Prem Chand Gupta and Amarendra Dhari Singh.Gupta, who is a close aide of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, hails from Haryana and had served as a minister in the UPA-1 government at the Centre.Singh, who is an entrepreneur, is not known for prior involvement in politics.His candidature had caused much bewilderment in the five-party grand alliance headed by the RJD, one reason being that he is a Bhumihar, the upper caste known to be most vocally opposed to Lalu Prasad in Bihar.Two BJP nominees Ram Chander Jangra and Dushyant Kumar Gautam and one Congress' aspirant Deepender Singh Hooda were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana.“They have been declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha,” said Returning officer Ajit Balaji Joshi here.The declaration of the three candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha was made on the last date for withdrawal of nominations.All candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana had submitted their nomination papers on March 13.The BJP had named its backward class leader Jangra and party vice-president Gautam while Congress had named Hooda, its former MP from Rohtak.Two of the Rajya Sabha vacancies had arisen due to resignation of BJP's Ram Kumar Kashyap, who was elected as party MLA in assembly polls last year, and the impending expiry of the term of veteran Congress leader Kumari Selja next month.Jangra and Deepender had entered the race to fill these vacancies which would last a full term till April 2026.A third vacancy had arisen following the resignation of former Union minister and BJP leader Birender Singh. Gautam has been elected to the Upper House against this vacancy for the remainder of Singh's term, which would last till August 2022.Deepender had been a three-time Lok Sabha member from Rohtak. In 2019, he narrowly lost to BJP's Arvind Sharma as the saffron party had won all 10 parliamentary seats from the state.Former state president of the BJP's Mahila Morcha, Indu Goswami has been elected to Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh.Goswami, 52, was declared as elected unopposed by Himachal Pradesh assembly secretary Yash Paul Sharma.She had filed her nomination on March 13 and the scrutiny of her papers was done on March 16.Accompanied by chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, state BJP chief Rajeev Bindal and education minister Suresh Bhardwaj, Goswami was handed over a certificate of her election to the Upper House by state assembly secretary Yash Paul Sharma.Speaking to the media, the chief minister said the BJP had sought cooperation from the Congress and other opposition parties, and they decided not to field candidates for the Rajya Sabha seat.The ruling BJP has a total of 44 MLAs in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly. Two independent MLAs are also supporting the BJP.Congress has 21 members, whereas the CPM has one MLA in the state assembly.The BJP's central election committee had on March 12 cleared Goswami's name from the state for the Rajya Sabha election.Goswami had resigned from the post of chief of state BJP's Mahila Morcha in July last year.Earlier, she had unsuccessfully contested the last assembly elections from Palampur constituency where she lost to Congress candidate Ashish Butail.One of the three Rajya Sabha seats from the state will fall vacant as Vipolve Thakur of the Congress is set to retire from the Upper House on April 9.The other two seats from the hill state are currently represented by BJP national president J P Nadda and senior Congress leader Anand Sharma.Nadda's term in the Rajya Sabha will end in 2024, whereas Sharma's term will be completed in 2022.The Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced elections to 55 Rajya Sabha seats across 17 states of the country on March 26.