Gandhinagar: All four Rajya Sabha candidates nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were declared elected unopposed on Thursday, as no other candidates entered the fray and the main opposition party, Congress, did not field any nominee.
An assembly secretariat statement confirmed that Raju Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukesh Rathwa, and Jitendra Kanjariya have been declared elected to the Rajya Sabha without contest. The four Rajya Sabha seats will become vacant on June 21 as the terms of MPs Narhari Amin, Rambhai Mokariya, Ramila Bara, and Shaktisinh Gohil conclude. While Amin, Mokariya, and Bara are from the BJP, Gohil is the lone Congress Rajya Sabha MP from the state.
Official Declaration
Returning officer and Gujarat legislative assembly secretary Chetan Pandya officially declared the four BJP nominees winners after noting that following the expiry of the deadline to withdraw nominations on Thursday, only four candidates remained in the fray for the same number of seats.
“As the time for withdrawal of nomination papers ended on June 11, there remained only four candidates contesting for four seats. Returning officer Chetan Pandya declared all these four candidates as elected unopposed,” the Vidhan Sabha secretariat statement said.
Candidate Profiles
Raju Shukla, 62, is currently in-charge of the BJP’s Surendranagar district unit. He previously served as president of the Kadi municipality and general secretary of the Mehsana district BJP.
Mukesh Rathwa, 39, a tribal leader from Chhotaudepur district, currently serves as general secretary of the BJP’s district unit. Earlier, he was vice-president of the BJP’s youth wing.
Mansinh Parmar, 45, hails from Gir Somnath district and is the president of the BJP OBC Morcha’s Gujarat unit.
Jitendra Kanjariya, 39, another prominent OBC leader from Devbhumi Dwarka district, previously served as a member of a district panchayat executive committee.
