Hyderabad: Congress candidates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Vem Narender Reddy were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Telangana. The returning officer announced their election after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday. The poll was declared uncontested as the only other nomination, filed by an independent candidate, was rejected during scrutiny for failing to secure the required support of proposers. As per the rules, a candidate must be proposed by at least 10 MLAs. Singhvi and Vem Narender had filed their nominations on March 5 in the presence of chief minister A Revanth Reddy and his cabinet colleagues. Singhvi, a senior Supreme Court advocate, was renominated by the Congress from Telangana after completing a short tenure of one-and-a-half years in the Upper House. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of the term after the seat was vacated by K Keshava Rao, a former BRS MP who joined the Congress after the Revanth Reddy govt assumed office. Singhvi’s fresh election follows the completion of that truncated term.Vem Narender, a close aide of Revanth, has been serving as an advisor to the state govt after the Congress came to power in Dec 2023. Both leaders had earlier worked together in the TDP before joining the Congress.
