NEW DELHI, Jan 28: Union Minister Sharad Pawar, Congress leader Murli Deora, RPI’s Ramdas Athawale and Vijay Goel (BJP) are likely to be elected unopposed along with 21 others in various States in the February 7 biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha as Digvijay Singh and Kumari Selja entered the fray today.
The victory of at least 25 of the 55 candidates in 16 States is a virtual certainty after tomorrow’s scrutiny with theirs being the only serious nominations against as many vacancies in the election.
Among the others who are likely to elected unopposed are Majid Memon (NCP), Hussain Dalwai (Cong), Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), all from Maharashtra, and sitting MP Parimal Nathwani, an independent, from Jharkhand.
JD(U)’s Ramnath Thakur, Kahkasha Parveen and Haribansh from Bihar, and AIADMK’s L Sasikala Pushpa, Vijila Sathyanand, A K Selvaraj and S Muthukaruppa, CPI(M)’s T K Rangarajan and Tiruchi N Siva (DMK), all from Tamil Nadu, are also likely to be elected to the Upper House.
As the deadline for filing of papers for the Upper House seats falling vacant in April drew to a close, IPL chairman Ranjib Biswas and master sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra were among the prominent candidates who filed their nominations from Odisha.
Selja, a known detractor of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and a surprise nominee of the Congress party, filed her papers from Haryana after quitting the Union Cabinet last night.
Putting an end to his ten-year self-imposed “exile” from electoral politics, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh filed his nomination for an RS berth from Madhya Pradesh.
After submitting his documents, 67-year-old Digvijay told reporters that he agreed for the RS nomination as he is an organisation man and wants to devote maximum time to it.
Goel, Ram Narain Dudi and Narain Pachariya, all BJP nominees, entered the fray for three Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan, the State election office said.
No other candidates have filed their nominations from the state and all the three are set to be elected unopposed after the last date of withdrawal of papers on January 31.
A total of four candidates, including Sanjay Singh, a Lok Sabha member of the Congress from Sultanpur in UP, entered the fray from Assam.
Eight candidates, including two Congress rebels, filed their nominations for six RS seats from Andhra Pradesh.
T Subbrami Reddy, K V P Ramachandra Rao and M A Khan, all Congress, and Telugu Desam’s Garikapati Mohan Rao and Sitarama Lakshmi were among the eight who entered the fray from the State.
Former MP K Keshava Rao, who defected from the Congress, filed his papers as Telangana Rashtra Samiti candidate.
Congress MLC K V Satyanarayana Raju alias Chaitanya Raju and MLA Adala Prabhakar Reddy were the other two candidaes who entered the fray as party rebels in the name of “United Andhra Pradesh.”
BJP’s Shambhuprasad Tundiya, Chunibhai Gohil and Lalsinh Vadodiya and Cong’s Madhusudhan Mistry, in charge of party’s affairs in Uttar Pradesh, filed their papers from Gujarat.
Tundiya is a religious figure belonging to the Dalit community while Gohil is a leader of fishermen community.
Vadodia is a Kshatriya community leader from Central Gujarat’s Anand district.
Biswal of the Congress and BJD-supported Mohapatra were among eight persons who filed their nominations from Odisha.
The three BJD candidates are Panchayati Raj Minister Kalpataru Das, Textile Minister Sarojini Hembram and former Minister A U Singhdeo.
The tenure of 55 Rajya Sabha members is coming to an end between April 2 and 12.
Seven seats will fall vacant in Maharashtra, six each in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, five each in West Bengal and Bihar, four each in Odisha and Gujarat, three each in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Assam, two each in Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and one each in Manipur, Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh. (PTI)
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