New Delhi: NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress leaders Motilal Vora, Digvijay Singh, Murli Deora and Kumari Selja, RPI’s Ramdas Athavale and Vijay Goel of BJP were among the 37 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha today from various states in the biennial polls.
Elections will be held in the remaining 18 seats on Februray seven in Andhra Pradesh (6), West Bengal (5), Odisha (4) and Assam (3).
Sanjay Sinh, whose candidature has sparked of protests in Assam, Congress’ T Subbrami Reddy and K V P Ramachandra Rao and TRS candidate Keshav Rao (all in Andhra Pradesh) and Trinamool candidate actor Mithun Chakraborty (West Bengal) are among those left in the fray.
Union minister Pawar, who decided to keep away from Lok Sabha elections, and Deora were among the seven candidates elected from Maharashtra.
The other candidates were: Majid Memon (NCP), Hussain Dalwai (Congress), Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), Sanjay Kakade (Independent) and Athavale, who was supported by BJP.
In Rajasthan, BJP nominee Goel, who is Delhi unit chief, Ram Narain Dudi and Narain Pachariya were the successful canididates .
Bihar sent five candidates – three from ruling JD(U) and two from BJP. The five are – Ramnath Thakur, Harivansh, Kahkasha Parveen (all from JD(U)), C P Thakur and R K Sinha (BJP). All the three JD(U) candidates are new faces.
In Tamil Nadu, the ruling AIADMK bagged four seats while DMK and CPI-M got one each.
Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has written to the Prime Minister’s Office rejecting the contention of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy that the bill is “not comprehensive”.
The Ministry is also contemplating approaching Parliament seeking a date to table the bill, an official said.
This is apparently for the first time the Central government is going ahead with bifurcation of a state despite the state Assembly rejecting the move.
The Assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh had passed resolutions in favour of creation of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh some 14 years ago.
