Chandigarh, Oct. 17 -- Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate and industrialist Rajinder Gupta was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on Thursday. Returning officer Ram Lok Khatana, who is also secretary of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, declared Gupta elected to the upper house of Parliament on the last date for the withdrawal of nominations. Gupta's wife, Madhu, was the only other candidate left after the scrutiny of nomination papers, withdrew her candidature, according to officials. Khatana later handed over the certificate of election to Gupta in the presence of Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and his wife. His RS term will be until April 9, 2028. Gupta said he was grateful to the party and the people of Punjab. "I have been given this responsibility. I'll start fulfilling it. Whatever the party decides, whatever the people's expectations are, I'll try to live up to them," he said. The bypoll was necessitated after the resignation of businessman-turned-politician Sanjeev Arora on July 1. Arora, who was elected to the RS in April 2022, stepped down after being elected MLA from the Ludhiana West seat. The AAP had named Gupta, chairman emeritus of the Trident Group, as its candidate two weeks ago. With the AAP having an overwhelming majority of 93 members in the 117-strong state assembly, his election was a foregone conclusion. However, the nomination process was not without drama. Another aspirant, Navneet Chaturvedi, who claims to be the president of Janata Party (India), filed his nomination papers as an Independent. The nomination papers carried the names and signatures of 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers. During scrutiny on Tuesday, his papers were rejected as several MLAs alleged that their signatures had been 'forged.' The MLAs filed police complaints, and he was arrested by the Ropar police on Wednesday. Punjab sends seven members to the RS. With Gupta's election, all seven members are now from the AAP. Sandeep Pathak, Raghav Chadha, Balbir Singh Seechewal, Harbhajan Singh, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, and Ashok Kumar Mittal are the other Rajya Sabha members....