Rajya Sabha elections: The Returning Officer announced that all three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates from Madhya Pradesh had been elected unopposed. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge was among four candidates who were unanimously elected from Karnataka, according to officials, according to PTI.

All four BJP candidates were also declared elected unopposed from Gujarat. Three candidates, two from the BJP and one from the Congress, were elected unopposed from Rajasthan on Thursday after no other contenders remained in the race following the end of the nomination withdrawal period.

Kharge sought another term in the Upper House from Karnataka. Along with him, Mansoor Ali Khan, Pawan Khera, and M Nagaraja were elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Five candidates had initially filed nominations by the deadline on Monday for the election, which was slated for June 18. Members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly were expected to cast their votes at Vidhana Soudha.

However, officials said that the nomination of an independent candidate was rejected during scrutiny. With Thursday being the final day for withdrawal of nominations and only four candidates remaining in the contest, all four were declared elected unopposed.

Their election was confirmed after the deadline for withdrawing nominations expired, leaving the number of valid candidates equal to the three seats available.

The biennial election was held to fill three Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan, as the terms of Dangi and BJP MPs Rajendra Gehlot and Ravneet Singh are due to end on June 21.

During scrutiny at the Rajasthan Assembly earlier this week, all nine nomination papers submitted by the three candidates were found to be valid.

With the victory of Poonia and Gurjar, the BJP secured two of the three seats, while the Congress retained its seat through Dangi's re-election. Rajasthan currently has 10 Rajya Sabha seats, which are evenly divided between the BJP and the Congress.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghvi, ministers, Gujarat BJP chief Jagdish Vishwakarma, and several senior party leaders were present at the Assembly complex in Gandhinagar when Rajubhai Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, and Jitendra Kanjariya filed their nomination papers.

As the Congress didn't contest, their victory was certain.

Shukla, 62, is currently heading the BJP's Surendranagar district unit and has previously served as the president of the Kadi municipality as well as the general secretary of the Mehsana district BJP. Rathwa, a 39-year-old tribal leader from Chhotaudepur district, is the general secretary of the BJP's district unit and earlier held the post of vice president in the party's youth wing.

Parmar, 45, from Gir Somnath district, is the president of the Gujarat unit of the BJP OBC Morcha. Kanjariya, another influential OBC leader aged 39 from Devbhumi Dwarka district, had earlier been a member of a district panchayat executive committee.

(With inputs from PTI)

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