41 candidates, including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda, new party entrant Ashok Chavan, and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan, have been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. The elections for these candidates took place without any contest.

Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh are set to witness polling on February 27 for the remaining seats in the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP secured the highest number of seats with 20 victories, followed by the Congress with 6 seats. Other parties that won seats include the Trinamool Congress (4), YSR Congress (3), RJD (2), BJD (2), and single-seat victories for NCP, Shiv Sena, BRS, and JD(U).

The respective returning officers declared the winners of the 41 seats as there were no other candidates in the fray on these positions during the last date of withdrawal of nominations.

A total of 56 seats were scheduled for biennial elections with the polling date set for February 27. Among these 50 members are set to retire on April 2, while the remaining six will do so on April 3.

Nadda, along with the BJP's other nominees Jasvantsinh Parmar, Mayank Nayak, and diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia, were declared winners from Gujarat. The decision came as the Congress, with only 15 MLAs, and other opposition parties opted not to contest against the BJP, which holds 156 legislators in the 182-member Gujarat assembly.

In Rajasthan, Sonia Gandhi secured her position unopposed, as did BJP's Chunnilal Garasiya and Madan Rathore.

In Maharashtra, all six candidates, including BJP's Ashok Chavan, who recently joined from Congress, and Shiv Sena's Milind Deora, a former Congress member, were elected unopposed. Meanwhile, in Bihar, JD(U)'s Sanjay Kumar Jha and BJP's Dharmshila Gupta among others emerged victorious.

In Bihar, winners include Sanjay Kumar Jha (JD(U)), Dharmshila Gupta and Bhim Singh (BJP), and Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD), Sanjay Yadav (RJD), and Akhilesh Prasad Singh (Congress).

In Uttar Pradesh, 11 candidates are competing for 10 seats. The BJP has fielded eight candidates, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) has renominated Jaya Bachchan and added two more candidates.

In Karnataka, Congress and BJP are contesting for four seats. In Himachal Pradesh, BJP and Congress compete for a single seat. In West Bengal, Sushmita Dev, Sagarika Ghose, Mamata Thakur, and Md Nadimul Haque from the Trinamool Congress, along with Samik Bhattacharya from the BJP, emerged victorious in the elections. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP secured four seats while the Congress got one. In Odisha, BJP and BJD won a seat each.

In Andhra Pradesh, YSR Congress swept all three seats, while in Telangana, Congress won two seats and BRS secured one. BJP nominees in Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh were elected unopposed.

Before the recent results, BJP held 93 seats in the Upper House, while Congress had 30. Outgoing members include former PM Manmohan Singh and several Union ministers. BJP leaders, including seven Union ministers, were renominated for the biennial polls, hinting at potential Lok Sabha contests.

Image source: The Economic Times