Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate Dinesh Arya was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand, officials said on Friday.
“We did not receive any nomination apart from that of the BJP’s Dinesh Arya. Arya’s election to the Upper House of Parliament is being seen as the BJP’s outreach to the Dalit community ahead of the Uttarakhand assembly elections, scheduled for February next year. The Congress had decided against contesting the election, citing a lack of numbers in the state assembly. “We know that we do not have the numbers in the state assembly.
He was handed over the certificate of election at 3 pm today,” Pant said. He filed his nomination papers on October 6 in the presence of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt. We have 20 MLAs and are short of the required numbers.
Secretary of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha Hem Pant said no other candidate had filed nomination papers for the seat. We cannot ensure the victory of our Rajya Sabha candidate, which is why we did not contest,” state Congress vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana said.
Arya, a Dalit leader from Kumaon, currently serves as vice-chairperson of the State Drinking Water Monitoring Committee and has previously served as the BJP’s Nainital district president.
