Hardeep Puri nominated for bypoll from Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha seat vacated by L Murugan

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate for the upcoming by-election to the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh that fell vacant after Union minister of state for information and broadcasting L Murugan resigned.Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri (ANI/File)The by-election will be held on November 12.Puri’s term as a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh is set to end in November. He was not renominated from the state earlier this month, with the BJP fielding eight new faces for the upcoming elections in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.Murugan, who also holds the parliamentary affairs portfolio, resigned from both the Union Council of Ministers and the Rajya Sabha, despite his term as a member of the Upper House being scheduled to end in 2030. In his resignation letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Murugan said he wanted to focus on politics in Tamil Nadu.All 10 Rajya Sabha candidates from Uttar Pradesh—eight from the Bharatiya Janata Party and two from the Samajwadi Party—were declared elected unopposed earlier this month.“All the 10 candidates, who were in the fray for the Rajya Sabha, have been declared elected. Friday (October 9) was the last date for the withdrawal of nominations,” an earlier HT report quoted as saying returning officer Ajit Kumar Verma.The eight BJP candidates declared elected included Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. The two SP candidates elected to Rajya Sabha are Ram Gopal Yadav and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani.