00:00News is coming in, Union Minister Hardeep Puri has been elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh.
00:09Hardeep Puri was declared elected by the returning officer Umesh Sharma on the last day of withdrawal of nominations.
00:17He in fact was the only candidate in the fray after the nomination papers of two other candidates were rejected
00:24during scrutiny.
00:25The Madhya Pradesh BJP chief, Hemant Khandelwal, collected Hardeep Puri's certificate of election from the returning officer in the presence
00:34of party MLA, Rameshwar Sharma.
00:38So on the last day of the scrutiny of papers, the nomination of the other two candidates,
00:45now both the candidates who were backed by the opposition congress were rejected.
00:50The bi-poll, if necessary, would have taken place on the 12th of November.
00:57The Rajya Sabha seat fell vacant after the resignation of former Union Minister El Murghan from the Rajya Sabha last
01:04month, which necessitated a bi-poll.
01:08So Murghan's term was due to end on the 2nd of April, 2030.
01:14Now amidst all this speculation over a cabinet re-jig, Hardeep Puri being elected to Rajya Sabha seems to suggest
01:22he will remain a key part of team Narendra Modi.
01:27I quickly want to cut across to my colleague Aishwarya Paliwal, who's getting us the latest on this big story.
01:33So Aishwarya, all that speculation that it's exit, you know, Hardeep Puri, clearly not happening.
01:41Well, definitely, you know, Gaurav, this is something that, in fact, is on expected lines,
01:45because on the last day of the withdrawal, Hardeep Puri, in fact, was the sole candidate in the frame,
01:51as the papers of the other two nominees were, in fact, rejected after the scrutiny.
01:55And what is now being declared by the returning officer, Omesh Sharma, is that unopposed,
02:01we are seeing BGP leader and the Union Petroleum Minister, Hardeep Puri, being elected unopposed from the Rajya Sabha seat
02:10in Madhya Pradesh.
02:11Gaurav, this was the same seat that he was vacated just a couple of days back by El Murghan,
02:16when he said that he wanted to go back to Tamil Nadu and work for the Marti Janta Party in
02:20the state of Tamil Nadu.
02:21So, this is something which will keep the BGP, BGP's numbers intact,
02:25and also, all the speculation that was doing around Vitrix's cabinet pre-shuffle,
02:31that is something which now, that speculation will die down,
02:35and also, you know, shows that the BGP has faith in Hardeep Puri,
02:39and the kind of work that he's done over the past many years, Gaurav.
02:43Aishwarya, for the moment, many thanks for joining me.
02:45Keep tracking that story.
02:46I will come back to you for more.
