RANCHI: JMM's Mahua Maji and BJP's Aditya Sahu were elected unopposed to the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state on Friday afternoon.
Maji (57) and Sahu (58) were declared winners by Jawed Haider, the secretary in charge of the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha cum returning officer for the Rajya Sabha election in the state, a little after the window for the withdrawal of nomination papers closed at 3 pm on Friday. The voting for the two seats was slated to be held on June 10 but was cancelled after no contestants filed their nomination papers.
Maji and Sahu are elected to the Upper House from Jharkhand uncontested in 16 years. In 2006, Congress candidate Mabel Rebello and BJP candidate Jai Prakash Narayan Singh were elected uncontested. Before 2006, JMM's Stephen Marandi and BJP's Yashwant Sinha were elected to the Rajya Sabha uncontested in 2004.
BJP's state president Deepak Prakash, former chief minister and BJP leader Babulal Marandi, the party's Ranchi MLA CP Singh and BJP's chief whip in the state assembly, Biranchi Narayan, were among those who accompanied Sahu as he collected his winning certificate from the returning officer in the evening. Sahu was given a grand welcome at the BJP's state headquarters by the party's office bearers, supporters and lawmakers.
Maji, who collected her certificate around 3:15 pm, was accompanied by Congress legislative party leader cum state rural affairs minister Alamgir Alam and state water resources minister Mithilesh Kumar Thakur.
