Nadda reelected to RS unopposed

SHIMLA: Union health minister and sitting Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh Jagat Prakash Nadda was on Thursday re-elected to the upper house unopposed.

This will be his second term as a member of the Parliament. Nadda, 58, who filed his nomination last week, was formally declared elected at the Himachal Vidhan Sabha complex in Shimla in the presence of chief minister Jai Ram Thakur. Nadda’s current term will end on April 2. The Congress had not fielded its candidate against the BJP leader.

Talking to media after being elected to the upper house, Nadda said he would speed up the work on setting up All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bilaspur. “It’s my commitment to see that the state gets maximum projects and assistance from the Centre,” he said.

Nadda started his career in student politics in 1975 when he joined the then Sampurna Kranti (total revolution) movement started by Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) against then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1977, he was elected as secretary of the Patna University Students Union.

Following his differences with Dhumal, Nadda quit the state politics and got appointed as the BJP national general secretary. He was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha in May 2012 for his first term and was later inducted as health minister in the National Democratic Alliance government led by PM Modi.

BJP’S DP VATS GETS RS BERTH FROM HARYANA

CHANDIGARH: Retired Lt General DP Vats, who was chosen by the BJP as its nominee for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Haryana, was on Thursday elected unopposed as no other contestant had filed nomination, an official said. The seat is currently held by Congress member Shadi Lal Batra who is retiring on April 2.

“Vats has been duly elected to fill the seat in the House (Rajya Sabha) of a member retiring on April 2, on the expiration of his term,” the official said.

Vats, 67, had filed his nomination on the last day of filing of papers on March 12.