Union Minister Alphons elected Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan

Tourism Minister KJ Alphons was elected as Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan unopposed on Thursday after the opposition Congress did not put up a candidate in the fray.

The seat had been vacant after former MP M Venkaiah Naidu was elected as the Vice President. The election for the seat was supposed to be held on November 16. In a cabinet reshuffle on 3 September 2017, Alphons was appointed as minister of state in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Minister of State (independent charge) of the Ministry of Tourism. Since he was not a member of Parliament, he had to enter either house of the Indian Parliament within six months.

Alphons's contest from Rajasthan was not easy as BJP MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari called the minister's nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan as "unfair", alleging that the rights the state's party workers had been compromised. "Outsider candidates who have no mass support in their state file nominations from here which is unfair," the legislator said in a statement issued soon after filing of nomination.