BJP has won two Rajya Sabha seats uncontested in northeast’s Assam on Monday. The two candidates of the saffron party—Rameswar Teli and Mission Ranjan Das had filed their nominations for Rajya Sabha seats from the state last week.
Both the BJP’s candidates—Teli and Das were handed their winning certificates by the returning officer Rajib Bhattacharjya in Guwahati.
“Since they were the only two candidates on the last day of withdrawal of nominations, both Teli and Das have been declared as winners without any contest and handed their certificates,” Bhattacharjya told HT.
Monday (August 26) was the last date for withdrawal of nominations for election to 12 Rajya Sabha seats in nine states scheduled on September 3.
BJP’s Teli is a former Union minister, while Das is a four-time MLA from North Karimganj. Both had filed their nominations on August 21.
The two Rajya Sabha seats, both occupied by BJP, had fallen vacant after former Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal won from the Dibrugarh seat and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa won from the Kaziranga seat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Sonowal had fought Lok Sabha elections from Dibrugarh and defeated Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) president Lurinjyoti Gogoi, who was the consensus candidate from the The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc alliance, by a margin of 279,321 votes.
Tasa, was elected to Rajya Sabha in June 2019. In the Lok Sabha election, he contested the Kaziranga seat and won over his nearest rival Roselina Tirkey of Congress by 248,947 votes.
