All four Karnataka Rajya Sabha candidates elected unopposed, including Mallikarjun Kharge

All four candidates fielded by the Congress and the BJP for the Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka were elected unopposed on June 11, 2026. The Congress nominees were AICC president and Leader of the Opposition in the upper house, Mallikarjun Kharge; AICC media and publicity department chairperson, Pawan Khera; and AICC secretary, Mansoor Ali Khan. The BJP's candidate was Prof M Nagaraj.

Voting had been scheduled for June 18. With no other candidates in the field, returning officers declared all four elected. Chief Minister D K Shivakumar congratulated them after the declaration, and the Congress's own candidates, Pawan Khera and Mansoor Ali Khan, thanked the party leadership for choosing them.

I am confident that they will champion Karnataka's interests in Parliament, effectively voicing the aspirations of our people.

1. 1.Congress: Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Khera, Mansoor Ali Khan.
2. 2.BJP: Prof M Nagaraj.
3. 3.Seats: 4, filled by MLAs of the Karnataka assembly.
4. 4.Scheduled poll date: June 18, 2026.
5. 5.Cause of the vacancies: terms of four members expiring by June 25, 2026.

The arithmetic behind an uncontested election

In Karnataka, Rajya Sabha polls are decided by the assembly, and the Congress holds a majority of the 224-seat house. When one party can elect three of four nominees on its own and the fourth has no serious challenger, the poll does not need to be contested. The outgoing members included H D Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular), and the BJP's Iranna Kadadi and Narayana Koragappa. The BJP's own candidate was the closest thing to a contest in the process rather than the result: Prof M Nagaraj said his candidature had not been referred by the state unit to the high command, and that he had petitioned the party leadership for a Rajya Sabha berth in the past too.

Kharge's case was the one that required a decision. His term was also due to expire in June, and the party had to decide whether to renominate its own president to the Rajya Sabha, where he leads the opposition bench. That the party chose to return him, and that his renomination passed without a contest, settles a question that had been open in the Congress's Karnataka unit since the leadership change at the end of May.