With the process for withdrawing nominations to Rajya Sabha elections ending at 3 pm on Friday, June 3, several candidates across the country have been elected to their RS seats unopposed.
Bihar
Five Rajya Sabha seats and seven Legislative Council seats were up for grabs in Bihar.
JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, noted Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti were among five candidates declared elected unopposed for Rajya Sabha.
Other two candidates who triumphed without a contest for the Upper House included JD(U) nominee Ramchandra Prasad Singh and BJP nominee Gopal Narayan Singh.
Jethmalani, a former BJP MP and law minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was elected to Rajya Sabha from RJD. He is presently pleading RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s case in the multi-crore fodder scam in Ranchi.
With this, the tally of parties for the 16 Upper House seats from Bihar will be JD(U) 9, BJP 5 and RJD 2.
Besides, all seven candidates — including five from the Grand Secular Alliance while two BJP nominees — were elected unopposed for Legislative Council polls.
Tamil Nadu
All six nominees from Tamil Nadu — four of ruling AIADMK and two belonging to DMK — were elected unopposed.
AIADMK candidates R Vaithilingam, A Navaneethakrishnan, A Vijayakumar, former Union Minister S R Balasubramoniyan, DMK nominees R S Bharathi and T K S Elangovan were declared elected to fill the vacancies of the six members who will retire on June 29 this year, Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer, A M P Jamaludeen said in a statement.
With the election of four MPs, the strength of ruling AIADMK will go up to 12 from the present 11 in Rajya Sabha.
Maharashtra
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal and senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram were elected unopposed from Maharashtra.
Others elected are former union minister Praful Patel (NCP), BJP’s Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Vikas Mahatme and Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut.
Chidambaram did not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls while his son Karti had unsuccessfully fought from his native Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, 10 candidates, including former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane, who had filed nomination papers for 10 seats of the Legislative Council, were also elected unopposed as two others withdrew from the fray.
Those who pulled out on Friday were Prasad Lad and Manoj Kotak, both from BJP.
Andhra Pradesh
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y. Satyanarayana Chowdary have been elected unanimously.
Two other candidates T.G. Venkatesh and V. Vijaysai Reddy have also been elected unopposed
V. Sunanda Reddy, who filed nomination as a dummy candidate on behalf of the YSR Congress, withdrew her papers yesterday, paving the way for the unanimous election of the four main candidates.
Prabhu is a BJP nominee supported by the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Chowdary and Venkatesh are TDP candidates, while Vijaysai is the lone opposition YSRC nominee.
Rajasthan
Polling for the four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan will take place on June 11 as no candidate withdrew their nomination.
Four BJP candidates and one Independent candidate, supported by opposition Congress, NPP and some Independent MLAs, have filed nominations for the four seats.
“Since no candidate withdrew their nomination, polling will take place on June 11 from 9 am to 4 pm,” returning officer Prithvi Raj said.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, BJP national vice president Om Prakash Mathur, former RBI official Ramkumar Sharma and member of the erstwhile Dungarpur royal family Harsh Vardhan Singh are the BJP nominees whereas, former Union Minister and businessman Kamal Morarka has filed nomination as an Independent candidate.
Uttar Pradesh
Stage is set for contest in 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh and 13 seats for Legislative Council with two extra candidates remaining in the fray, prompting major parties to work overtime to keep their flock together.
Returning Officer and Principal Secretary (Assembly) Pradeep Kumar Dubey said none of the 12 candidates for Rajya Sabha and 14 candidates for the Legislative Council withdrew their papers.
The contest for Rajya Sabha became interesting after Independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra, a social worker, filed her papers at the last moment as the 12th candidate for the 11 seats going to polls next week, thereby forcing voting.
Several BJP MLAs and members of smaller parties besides some Independents have signed Preeti’s two sets of nominations making chances of cross-voting a possibility.
Congress has accused her of being a BJP candidate who could encourage horse-trading as her entry might queer the pitch of former Union minister and noted lawyer Kapil Sibal, who needs five extra votes for victory. Congress has 29 MLAs and each candidate needs 34 votes for Rajya Sabha win.
