Last Updated: February 20, 2024, 17:30 IST
Sonia Gandhi says she won’t contest Lok Sabha polls due to health reasons. (Image: PTI)
Sonia Gandhi was first elected as an MP in 1999 after taking over as the Congress president
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and BJP National President JP Nadda were on Tuesday elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and Gujarat respectively. It will be the former Congress President’s first term in the Upper House after serving five terms as a Lok Sabha MP.
She was first elected as an MP in 1999 after taking over as the Congress president. She will be the second member of the Gandhi family to enter the Rajya Sabha after former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was a member of the Upper House from August 1964 to February 1967.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chunnilal Garasiya and Madan Rathore were also elected unopposed to the Upper House from the state, Assembly Secretary Mahaveer Prasad Sharma said. Tuesday was the last day for withdrawing nominations.
As no other candidates had filed nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat on four vacant seats, Returning Officer Reeta Mehta declared all the four BJP candidates, including Nadda, elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament, an official said.
Apart from Nadda, the three other candidates elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha were diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia, BJP leaders Jasvantsinh Parmar and Mayank Nayak.
A total of 56 members of Rajya Sabha from 15 states are retiring in April and the election to the seats will be held on February 27. The last date for filing nominations was February 15.
(With PTI inputs)