Hardeep Singh Puri elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha

Hardeep Singh Puri was declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh on November 5, after the nominations of the two other candidates were rejected and his nomination was accepted by the Returning Officer. Puri, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and Union petroleum minister, became the sole candidate after scrutiny of nomination papers. Returning Officer Umesh Sharma accepted Puri’s papers on November 3 after considering objections from Congress leaders and independent candidates. Sharma said in his order that no defect had been found and that Puri had not violated requirements of the Representation of the People Act. The nominations of Rajkumar Lohani, a Congress-backed candidate, and Kante Sayanna were rejected. A report on the scrutiny said Sayanna’s papers lacked the required proposer signatures, while Lohani had not submitted a mandatory Form 26 affidavit by the deadline. The two rejections left Puri unopposed when the nomination-withdrawal period ended at 3 p.m. on November 5. Congress leaders Hemant Katare and Atif Aqeel had objected to Puri’s nomination, arguing that his Form 26 affidavit was incomplete and invalid. After Sharma’s decision, the...