KC Venugopal among 43 first timers to secure Rajya Sabha seat

New Delhi: All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary KC Venugopal was on Friday elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.

The ruling Congress in Rajasthan won two Rajya Sabha seats, while the opposition BJP got one in elections held in the state on Friday.

K C Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi of the Congress were declared winner, while Rajendra Gehlot of the BJP also got elected, an assembly spokesperson said.

The BJP had fielded a second candidate as well, Onkar Singh Lakhawat, but he lost.

With this, the number of Congress party's Rajya Sabha MPs from Rajasthan has increased to three, out of a total of 10. The rest seven are BJP members.

43 first timers in RS

As many as 43 first timers are set to enter the Upper House accounting for 72 per cent of vacancies being filled up, the research division of Rajya Sabha has found.

With only 12 retiring members being re-elected and seven more members with past experience of the Upper House returning for another term, the collective experience of the Members of Rajya Sabha will drop to only 63 terms, a senior official in the research division of RS secretariat said.

Against 61 vacancies in 20 states, 42 were already elected unopposed including 28 first timers. Of the remaining 19 vacancies for which results will be declared Friday, 15 first timers are likely to enter the Rajya Sabha.

While 61 retiring members have a total experience of 95 terms ranging from one to four terms in Rajya Sabha, the winners come with a total composite experience of only 32 terms, resulting in a decline in total experience of 63 terms, the official said.

Prominent leaders to enter Rajya Sabha for the first time include Jyotiraditya Scindia,Mallikarjun Kharge, M Thambidurai (former Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha), K C Venugopal and KR Suresh Reddy (Former Speaker of Legislative Assembly of composite Andhra Pradesh state).

The 12 sitting members being re-elected are: Bhubaneswar Kalita (for 5th term), Premchand Gupta (5th term), Tiruchi Shiva (4th term), K Keshava Rao, Biswajit Daimary and Parimal Nathwani (all for 3rd term), Sharad Pawar, Ramdas Athawale, Harivansh, Digvijay Singh, KTS Tulsi and Ramnad Thakur (all for second term), the sources said.

Six members entering Rajya Sabha having been earlier members of the Upper House include GK Vasan, Dinesh Trivedi and Nabam Rabia (all for 3rd term), Deve Gowda, Shibu Soren (expected to win from Jharkahnd) and Omkar Singh Lakhawat (expected to win from Rajasthan), both for 2nd term, the sources add.

State-wise, the four members who retired from Karnataka had a total experience of nine terms in Rajya Sabha while the new incumbents have a total experience of only one term in the election of Deve Gowda with the other three being first timers.

In the case of Maharashtra, while seven members with a collective experience of 10 terms retired, the new incumbents account for an experience of only two terms with the re-election of Sharad Pawar and Ramdas Athawale.

The drop in the total experience in respect of four vacancies in Andhra Pradesh is six terms followed by five terms in respect of six vacancies in Tamil Nadu, four terms in case of four vacancies in Gujarat and four terms in Odisha with all the four new members being first timers.

For the 19 vacancies in Rajya Sabha for which results are to be announced Friday, there are 28 candidates in the fray of which 24 were never members of Rajya Sabha, the sources say.

Friday's contest is between such freshers in Gujarat, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Given the composition in AP Legislative Assembly, Shri Parimal Nathwani, backed by YSRCP is expected to win along with three other party candidates, the sources add.

(With PTI inputs.)