By IANS,
New Delhi : Nominations for biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha for 49 seats across 12 states ended Monday with the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) making efforts to maximise their strength in the upper house of parliament.
In Andhra Pradesh, where the last date for filing nominations was June 4, six candidates were declared elected unopposed. Among them was union Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh.
While some states such as Karnataka and Orissa are expected to witness interesting contests, some others are likely to return the candidates unopposed.
Prominent Congress leaders in the fray are Ambika Soni from Punjab, Anand Sharma from Rajasthan, Mohsina Kidwai from Chhattisgarh, Capt Satish Sharma from Uttar Pradesh and Oscar Fernandes from Karnataka.
The prominent BJP leaders in the fray include Venkaiah Naidu from Karnataka, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi from Uttar Pradesh and Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Bihar.
Former union minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ramvilas Paswan is contesting the biennial poll from Bihar with the support of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The BJP has fielded former union minister Ram Jethmalani as its candidate for second seat from Rajasthan. The party needs support of some Independent legislators to enable Jethmalani to sail through. A by-election is also being held in Rajasthan to fill a seat caused by the death of BJP MP Krishan Lal Balmiki in April.
In Karnataka, the election scenario has become interesting with liqour baron Vijay Mallya filing his nomination papers Monday as an Independent backed by Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).
Mallya, who also runs Kingfisher Airlines and owns Indian Premier League team of Royal Challengers Bangalore, is banking on the support of the ruling BJP also to return to the Rajya Sabha.
Mallya had won as an Independent in the 2002 polls to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
A candidate from Karnataka requires 45 first preference votes of the state assembly members. The JD-S has 27 members in the 225-member assembly.
The BJP with 122 votes, including those of six Independents, is assured of winning two seats for its nominees – Naidu and state party leader Ayanur Manjunath.
The BJP will have 32 surplus votes and Mallya is confident of getting the 18 votes he needs to sail through.
In Orissa, the opposition Congress has backed businessman Tara Patnaik as an Independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha.
“We don’t have the required numbers to field a candidate of our own, therefore we supported him,” Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh told IANS.
Elections in the state will be held to fill three vacancies caused by retirement of Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, the Congress’ Radhakanta Naik and the BJP’s Bhagirathi Majhi. They are completing their tenures July 1.
The BJD has renominated Mohapatra for the poll to be held June 17. It has also fielded former legislator Sashi Bhusan Behera and party general secretary Baishnab Parida for the other two seats.
In the 147-member assembly, the BJD has 103 members, the Congress 27, BJP six, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) four and the Communist Party of India (CPI) one. There are six Independent members.
The BJP had Sunday said it would abstain from voting for the poll in the state to keep equal distance from the BJD and the Congress.
In Andhra Pradesh, only six candidates had filed their papers for as many seats and their election was a mere formality.
Congress candidates Janardhan Reddy, V. Hanumantha Rao and former bureaucrat J.D. Seelam were re-elected to the upper house along with Ramesh for the second consecutive term.
Industrialist Y. Sujana Chowdary and G. Sudharani of main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were elected for the first time.
Nominations for elections to the Rajya Sabha were held in the following states – Chhattisgarh (two seats), Madhya Pradesh (three), Tamil Nadu (six), Karnataka (four), Orissa (three), Maharashtra (six), Punjab (two) Rajasthan (four) Uttar Pradesh (11), Uttarakhand (one) Bihar (five) Jharkhand (two).