- These three seats would take the BJP’s tally to 93 in the 245-member Rajya Sabha with a boost of one seat
NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, JULY 17
Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and two other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates were on Monday declared elected “uncontested” to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, officials said.
રાજ્યસભા ચૂંટણી- 2023માં બિનહરીફ ચૂંટાવવા બદલ ભારતીય જનતા પાર્ટીના વિજયી ઉમેદવારોને ખૂબ ખૂબ અભિનંદન pic.twitter.com/6dHTpyfU9N
— BJP Gujarat (@BJP4Gujarat) July 17, 2023
Apart from Jaishankar, the other two BJP candidates elected to the Upper House of Parliament for a 6-year term are Kesridevsinh Jhala and Babubhai Desai.
This would be second term for Jaishankar, who joined the second Modi ministry in 2019 as the Minister of External Affairs after his predecessor Sushma Swaraj stepped down from electoral politics.
Returning Officer Reeta Mehta said the three candidates have been declared as being elected “uncontested”.
પ્રદેશ અધ્યક્ષ શ્રી @CRPaatil ની સૂચના અને માર્ગદર્શન મુજબ પ્રદેશ સહ પ્રવક્તાશ્રીઓના નામોની જાહેરાત કરવામાં આવી.
નવનિયુક્ત પ્રદેશ સહ પ્રવક્તાશ્રીઓને અભિનંદન સહ શુભકામનાઓ pic.twitter.com/difu5BVeuB
— BJP Gujarat (@BJP4Gujarat) July 17, 2023
Kesridevsinh Digvijaysinh Jhala, Desai Babubhai Jesangbhai, and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar Krishnaswami “have been declared elected uncontested on July 17,” the RO said in a declaration on the National eVidhan Application website.
Monday (July 17) was the last date to withdraw nomination forms, and if required, polling was to take place on July 24.
These three seats would take the BJP’s tally to 93 in the 245-member Rajya Sabha with a boost of one seat. Unlike Lok Sabha where the BJP has a clear majority, it does not have a similar majority in Rajya Sabha.
The Opposition Congress had announced it would not field candidates for polls to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat as it did not have enough MLAs in the 182-member Assembly.
Two sitting Raya Sabha MPs from Gujarat, Jugalji Thakor and Dinesh Anavadiya – whose term was to end soon – were not renominated by the BJP which instead fielded Jhala and Desai this time.
The saffron party had won a record 156 seats in the Assembly polls held late last year, while the Congress saw its worst performance since the state was formed by managing to get just 17 seats.
