Vijay Goel among 3 BJP leaders elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha

JAIPUR: BJP nominees Vijay Goel, Ram Narain Dudi and Narain Pachariya were today elected unopposed in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections from Rajasthan.

As there was no contestant against them after the time of withdrawal ended, they were declared elected by Assembly Special Secretary and Returning Officer P K Shastri.

The biennial elections for these seats were held as the sitting members -- GP Pilania, Om Mathur (both BJP) and Prabha Thakur of Congress -- would retire on April 9.

In the 200-member Assembly, BJP has 163 MLAs. Congress having only 21 MLAs did not field anyone as it fell short of the requisite number to ensure victory of its candidate.

Vijay Goel is BJP Delhi unit chief. He was party's chief ministerial candidate for Delhi but was later replaced by Harsh Vardhan.

Dudi was the Revenue Minister in the previous BJP regime in Rajasthan, while Pachariya is former president of the party's Jodhpur unit.