Union Minister Ambika Soni, Congress leader Satish Sharma, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and senior journalist Chandan Mitra were among 30 candidates elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, with the Congress and the BSP garnering seven seats each.

The BJP bagged five seats, the DMK three, the SP, the NCP and the AIADMK two each, and the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena one each as all 30 candidates made it to the Upper House after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations closed in the evening.

With 30 aspirants in race for as many seats from Uttar Pradesh (11), Maharashtra (six), Tamil Nadu (six), Madhya Pradesh (three), Punjab (two), Rajasthan (one) and Uttarakhand (one) and as no one opted out of contest, all of them were declared elected.

In Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BSP got seven berths as Mr. Sharma (Congress) and Mr. Naqvi (BJP) were among 11 elected uncontested to the House of Elders. Others elected are Satish Chandra Misra, S.P. Singh Baghel, Ambed Rajan, Jugal Kishore, Narendra Kashyap, Mohd Salim Ansari and Rajpal Saini (all BSP) and Mohan Singh and Rashid Masood (SP).

Among the elders retiring from Uttar Pradesh on July 4, seven belonged to the SP and two to the BSP.

Ms. Soni and SAD general secretary Balwinder Singh Bhunder were declared elected unopposed from Punjab.

Vijay Darda and Avinash Pande (both Congress), Tariq Anwar and Ishwarlal Jain (both NCP), Piyush Goel (BJP) and Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) were elected from Maharashtra. Kanhaiyalal Gidwani of the Congress withdrew from the contest on the last day leaving six in the fray for as many seats from the State.

From Tamil Nadu, K.P. Ramalingam, T.M. Selvaganapathy, S. Thangavelu (all DMK), Manoj Pandian and K.V. Ramalingam (both AIADMK) and E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan (Congress) were elected.

BJP's Chandan Mitra and Anil Madhav Dave and Vijaylaxmi Sadho of the Congress made it to the Upper Houser from Madhya Pradesh.

With the Opposition BJP did not fielding any candidate for a Rajya Sabha bypoll from Rajasthan, Narendra Budhaniya of the Congress was declared elected unopposed.

The byelection arose after BJP's K.K. Valmiki died early this year.

For June 17 biennial elections to four Upper House seats from the State, five candidates are vying for the honour. Prominent among them are Union Minister Anand Sharma, the BJP's Ram Jethmalani and Santosh Bagrodia, Independent.

BJP spokesman Tarun Vijay was declared elected unopposed for the lone RS seat from Uttarakhand.

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