AIR PICS
Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, bowing out of Lok Sabha, has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. In a surprise move, the 77-year-old had filed her nomination from Jaipur — the seat held by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — earlier this month.
Mrs Gandhi has been representing Raebareli in the Lok Sabha since 2006. She had won the seat even in 2019, when the Congress performance was at its all-time low and Rahul Gandhi lost the other family turf of Uttar Pradesh — Amethi — to the BJP’s Smriti Irani.
In Madhya Pradesh, all five Rajya Sabha candidates from the state were elected unopposed. These include four candidates from BJP and one from Congress.
According to the election official, among the winning candidates, four candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party are Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr L Murugan, Umesh Nath Maharaj, Bansilal Gurjar and Mrs Maya Narolia and from Congress, Ashok Singh has won.
The time for withdrawal of nominations for Rajya Sabha elections was fixed till 3 pm today. After this deadline, the candidates of both the parties were declared unopposed.
In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, BJP has 163 MLAs and Congress has 66 MLAs.