MS Gill, Tohra elected to RS from Punjab

With Punjab Congress president H.S. Hanspal withdrawing his candidature, five candidates have been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Three of them, M.S. Gill, Dharampal Sabarwal and Ashwani Kumar, are from the Congress while the remaining two, Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Varinder Singh Bajwa, are from the Shiromani Akali Dal.

The drama within the Congress on Gill’s candidature ended today with Hanspal withdrawing his papers.

Hanspal sought to clarify that he had ‘‘not filed the RS papers for the purpose of contesting the polls, but on the directions of the party high command and that too as a covering candidate’’. Akali Dal’s Jarnail Singh Wahid too had filed his papers as a covering candidate, he said.