By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 3 Jun: BJP candidate Dr Kalpana Saini has been elected unopposed in the election to the lone vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Uttarakhand. Once the time got over for the withdrawal of nominations, Mukesh Singhal, the Returning Officer and Secretary, Assembly, declared her as elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha and handed over the certificate of election in the evening.
The Congress had not declared any candidate for the Rajya Sabha election from the state in view of the fact that it is not in a position to put up a decent fight as BJP has very clear majority in the state assembly.
Kalpana Saini is the third woman to go to the Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand. Earlier, Manorama Dobriyal Sharma had gone to the Rajya Sabha on a Congress ticket, while Sushma Swaraj, a parachute candidate from the BJP too had represented the state in the Rajya Sabha.
It may be recalled that Dr Kalpana Saini has been an educationist and was currently the chairperson of the State Backward Classes Commission. She has been associated with the RSS and the BJP for a long time. Saini’s father Dr Prithvi Singh served as the Minister of State for Irrigation in undivided Uttar Pradesh after winning the assembly election from Roorkee in 1991 on a BJP ticket.
