Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri was on Thursday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha in a by-election from Madhya Pradesh, an official said.
Puri, 74, was declared elected by Returning Officer Umesh Sharma on the last day for withdrawal of nominations, after emerging as the sole candidate in the contest.
The nomination papers of the other two candidates, Kante Sayanna and Rajkumar Lohani, who was backed by the Opposition Congress, had been rejected during scrutiny. The bypoll was scheduled to be held on 12 November if required.
Madhya Pradesh BJP president Hemant Khandelwal collected Puri’s certificate of election from the returning officer in the presence of party MLA Rameshwar Sharma.
Khandelwal later told reporters that the BJP’s official candidate had been elected unopposed. He said several party leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda, had been authorised to receive the certificate.
Khandelwal congratulated BJP workers on the election of Puri, a career diplomat-turned-politician.
After collecting the certificate, Khandelwal and BJP state organisation general secretary Chandrashekhar met Chief Minister Mohan Yadav at his residence and informed him about the development.
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