Before the by-elections on 12 seats in 9 states, 3 BJP candidates have been elected unopposed. These include Ravneet Singh Bittu from Rajasthan, Upendra Kushwaha and Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar. Victory certificates have been issued to all three candidates. After winning in Bihar, both the candidates had a courtesy meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. In fact, by-elections are to be held on two seats each in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra and one seat each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura, Telangana and Odisha.
This Rajya Sabha by-election has been vacated due to the election of Kamakhya Prasad Tasha and Sarbananda Sonowal in Assam, Misa Bharti and Vivek Thakur in Bihar, Deepender Hooda in Haryana, Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia in Madhya Pradesh, Chhatrapati Udayan Raje Bhosale from Maharashtra, Piyush Vedprakash Goyal, KC Venugopal from Rajasthan and Biplab Dev from Tripura as Lok Sabha members and the resignation of Keshav Rao of Telangana and Mamata Mohanta of Odisha. The members elected after the new election will be for the remaining tenure of the outgoing members. This tenure is from next year i.e. 2025 to 2028.
The Election Commission had issued a notification for the Rajya Sabha by-election this month. The last date for filing nomination papers was August 21 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination was August 27. Voting will be held in the respective state assemblies on September 3 from 9 am to 4 pm. Counting of votes will start at 5 pm the same evening and the results will be out by night.
Know about the candidates who were elected unopposed-
Ravneet Singh Bittu: Ravneet Singh Bitti (48), who lost the Lok Sabha elections from Ludhiana, has been made a Union Minister in Modi Cabinet 3.0. Ravneet Singh Bittu, a three-time Congress MP, was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Anandpur Sahib in 2009. After this, he won from Ludhiana in 2014 and 2019. Bittu was only 11 years old when his father died and at the age of 20, his grandfather and former Chief Minister of Punjab Beant Singh was assassinated by pro-Khalistan terrorists in Chandigarh on 31 August 1995. Bittu entered politics after meeting Congress President Rahul Gandhi in 2007. Before that Bittu used to run a small cement production unit. Bittu was appointed President of Punjab Youth Congress in 2008 at the age of 33.
Upendra Kushwaha: In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, Upendra Kushwaha had to face defeat from Karakat seat of Bihar. He contested the election from Karakat seat on RLM ticket on behalf of NDA. Kushwaha is a big leader of Bihar. He has been a member of Bihar Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly. Apart from this, he has also been a member of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. He has also been a minister at the Center. Upendra Kushwaha entered the world of politics in 1985. He was the state general secretary of Yuva Lok Dal from 1985 to 1988 and remained national general secretary from 1988 to 1993.
Manan Kumar Mishra: Manan Kumar Mishra, originally a resident of Tiwari Khareya village in Kuchaykot block of Gopalganj district of Bihar, has been winning the Bar Council of India elections continuously since April 2012. BJP has decided to send seven-time BCI president Manan Kumar Mishra to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar. Mishra practices law in the Supreme Court.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)