Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, nine others elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow:  Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and nine others were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh on Monday. Eight of them belonged to the BJP while one each are from the Samajwadi Party and the BSP.

Ten candidates were declared elected to the Rajya Sabha and were also given their certificates, Assistant Returning Officer Mohd Mushahid said.

Besides Puri, those elected to the upper house of Parliament are BJP's Neeraj Shekhar, Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Haridwar Dubey, Brijlal, BL Varma and Seema Dwivedi; Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav; and BSP's Ramji Gautam, he added.

The term of the newly elected members will be from 25 November, 2020 to 24 November, 2026.

High drama was witnessed on the last day for the filing of nominations last Tuesday with a Samajwadi Party-backed Independent candidate Prakash Bajaj entering the fray minutes before the expiry of time limit.

His papers were, however, rejected during scrutiny but not before four signatories of BSP candidate Ramji Gautam's nomination papers claimed that their signatures were forged and gave an affidavit to the returning officer in this regard.

Acting tough, BSP president Mayawati suspended them and three others, who had allegedly met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav after coming out in the open against the party leadership.

There are 31 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, of which 22 are now held by the BJP, five by the Samajwadi Party and three by the BSP. The Congress has only one member in the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.