Hardeep Singh Puri Cleared to Run Unopposed in Rajya Sabha By-Election

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's nomination as the ruling BJP candidate for the November 12 Rajya Sabha by-election from Madhya Pradesh was cleared by the Returning Officer (RO) on Tuesday, with all objections raised by the Congress rejected during scrutiny. With the RO also rejecting the nominations of the two independent candidates — Congress-backed social activist Rajkumar Lohani and Telangana native Kante Sayanna — for submitting incomplete nomination papers, Puri is now the only candidate left in the fray. This means he is set to be elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations expires at 3 pm on November 5. The state Congress had raised multiple objections to Puri's nomination, questioning the completeness and validity of the documents submitted along with his nomination form. However, after examining the objections, the Returning Officer cleared the Union Minister's nomination. Following the clearance of Puri's nomination, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Hemant Katare and first-time Bhopal North Congress MLA Atif Aqeel announced that they would soon approach the Madhya Pradesh High Court to challenge the Returning Officer's decision to accept his nomination papers.