BJP’s Selvaganapathy elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed from Puducherry

PUDUCHERRY: BJP nominee to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the Union territory of Puducherry S Selvaganapathy was declared elected unopposed as he was the only candidate in the fray when the deadline for withdrawing candidature ended at 3pm on Monday.
Legislative assembly secretary R Mounissamy, who is also the returning officer, declared that Selvaganapathy was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha. He handed over the certificate of election to the upper house of the Parliament to Selvaganapathy, who is also the local BJP unit treasurer.
Opposition DMK and Congress did not field any candidate against the BJP candidate. Mounissamy rejected the nominations of independent candidates as they did not have the support of any MLAs.
The tenure of Rajya Sabha MP N Gokulakrishnan (AIADMK) expires on October 6.
The assembly has 30 elected members and three nominated members. The All India NR Congress (AINRC) has 10 seats and its ally BJP six. Opposition DMK has six seats and Congress two. Six independent candidates were elected to the assembly. Three have extended support to the BJP and the rest three to the AINRC. There are three nominated members (BJP).