In a smooth and drama-free conclusion to the biennial Rajya Sabha elections, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has secured a fresh term in Parliament’s Upper House — and this time, he didn’t even need a vote to do it.
Four candidates — BJP’s M. Nagaraj and Congress leaders Pawan Khera, Mansoor Ali Khan, and Mallikarjun Kharge — were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka after the number of valid candidates matched the number of available seats exactly, making polling unnecessary.
The result is a significant organisational win for Congress, which managed to secure three of the four seats from a state it governs — a reflection of its comfortable majority in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
A New Chapter for Kharge
The four seats fell vacant as the terms of sitting members — Iranna Kadadi and Narayana Koragappa of the BJP, Mallikarjun Kharge of Congress, and former PM H.D. Deve Gowda of JD(S) — were set to end on June 25. Kharge’s re-election ensures the 83-year-old Congress chief and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha continues to anchor the Opposition’s voice in Parliament for another six-year term.
Fresh Faces in the Upper House
The elections also marked notable arrivals. Pawan Khera, who chairs the AICC’s media and publicity department and is best known as Congress’s sharp-tongued spokesperson, enters Parliament for the first time. He told reporters it was a matter of great pride and even promised to learn Kannada.
Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former Union minister K. Rahman Khan, also makes his Rajya Sabha debut. He had narrowly lost the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat in 2024 and was closely associated with the Congress campaign alleging vote theft in that constituency.
On the BJP side, Prof M. Nagaraja — an academician from Hubballi, RSS member, and former ABVP state president — was elected as the saffron party’s lone representative from Karnataka.
With all four elected without contest, Karnataka’s Rajya Sabha chapter closed quietly — but its political significance is anything but small.
