Senior leader and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on Tuesday, assembly secretary Mahaveer Prasad Sharma informed.
Apar from Sonia Gandhi, both the BJP candidates – Madan Rathore and Chunnilal Garasiya – have also been elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
Tuesday was the last day for withdrawing nominations. As there were no other contenders in the fray, the three leaders were elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed.
First term in Rajya Sabha for Sonia
This will be the first term in the upper house for 77-year old Sonia Gandhi after serving five terms in Lok Sabha. She will be the second in Gandhi family after Indira Gandhi, who represented Rajya Sabha from 1964-67.
With this it is certain that Sonia will not contest from Rae Bareli seat in Lok Sabha elections. There are speculations that Priyanka Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi May be fielded from this constituency, which has remained a pocket borough of Gandhi's since the times of Indira Gandhi.
Sonia started electoral politics in 1999
Sonia Gandhi started her political journey 1999 when she was first elected as a Member of Parliament (MP). She contested from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Bellary in Karnataka and won from both the seats. However, she decided to retain Amethi which was a family stronghold.
Later in 2004, Sonia Gandhi moved Raebareli letting her son Rahul Gandhi to make his Lok Sabha debut from that seat. Her 25-year long journey in Lok Sabha has been interesting with 10 years when Congress was in power.
Sonia Gandhi replaces former prime minister Manmohan Singh
The terms of Rajya Sabha members Manmohan Singh (Congress) and Bhupendra Yadav (BJP) are set to expire on April 3. The third seat became vacant after BJP MP Kirodi Lal Meena resigned from the House in December following his election as MLA.
Out of 10 members of Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, Congress has six members while BJP has four. Apart from Sonia, other Congress members included K C Venugopal, Pramod Kumar, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala and Neeeaj Dangi.Out of that only one – Neeraj Dangi is native of Rajasthan while all others are party's stalwart.
In BJP other two members are Ghanshyam Tiwari and Rajendra Gehlot.
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