Congress candidates for the ongoing Biennial Elections to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) from Chhattisgarh K T S Tulsi and Phulo Devi Netam filed their nominations at Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly on Friday in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Congress bigwigs.

The nomination papers were filed by the Congress candidates K T S Tulsi and Phulo Devi Netam before G S Murthy, Returning Officer for the Biennial Elections to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) in Chhattisgarh. The two Congress candidates were accompanied by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, AICC Chhattisgarh In charge P L Punia, CPCC President Mohan Markam, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ravindra Choubey, Home Minister Tamradhawaj Sahu, Health Minister T S Singhdeo, Forest Minister Mohammed Akbar, Urban Administration Minister Dr Shivkumar Daharia, Revenue Minister Jaisingh Agrawal, Women and Child Welfare Minister Anila Bhedia, senior Congress leader Satyanarayan Sharma, Dhanendra Sahu and other MLPs and public representatives.

While K T S Tulsi is a senior Supreme Court Advocate, was first nominated as Rajya Sabha Member in 2014 during the then UPA government. He was also appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India in 1990. Similarly, Phulo Devi Netam is the incumbent Chhattisgarh Mahila Congress State President. Netam, who is a tribal leader from Bastar region, had represented Keshkal Assembly segment (1998-2003) in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly and had also contested Lok Sabha elections 2014 from Kanker parliamentary constituency but lost to nearest BJP rival.

Later talking to mediapersons after filing nominations K T S Tulsi said that it is country’s most prosperous state which has no comparison. He said that in Punjab we say it produces gold, which is largely due to Mustard (sarson) cultivation, but here real gold, diamond and other minerals are found in abundance. Hence this state’s prosperity can’t be compared with others. Talking about his responsibility after being elected to Rajya Sabha from Chhattisgarh, he said that today is first day of class and test cannot be taken on the very first day. But he thinks he’s fortunate enough to get an opportunity to serve Chhattisgarh and that he will do his level best to make Chhattisgarh most prosperous and progressing state in the country. At first he will try to understand the state and then answer on his responsibility.

The Indian National Congress has 3/4 majority, wherein, it has 69 Members while the BJP has 14 in the 90 member Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, hence this time both the vacancies will be filled by Congress candidates. This is the reason why BJP has not fielded any candidates to contest Congress candidates. The nominations filed by both the Congress candidates will be scrutinised on March 16, 2020 and last date for the withdrawal of candidature is March 18, 2020. However, in this case the candidates will be elected unopposed as no other nominations have been filed to contest them, the results will be announced on the last date of withdrawal of candidature on March 18, 2020, as no polling will be required.

The ongoing Biennial Elections to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) is being conducted as two sitting Rajya Sabha Members – Ranvijay Singh Judeo from Bharatiya Janata Party and Motilal Vora from Indian National Congress, will be retiring from Rajya Sabha on April 9, 2020. The other three sitting Rajya Sabha members from Chhattisgarh are Saroj Pandey and Ramvichar Netam of BJP and Chhaya Verma of Congress.