30 elected unopposed to RS, Cong, BSP bag 7 each

The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress bagged seven seats each as Union Minister Ambika Soni, BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Gandhi family loyalist Satish Sharma and journalist Chandan Mitra were among 30 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party garnered five seats, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got three, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got two apiece and the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena got one each respectively as all 30 made it to the Upper House after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations drew to close on Thursday evening.

The poll was held for 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 6 seats in Maharashtra, 6 seats in Tamil Nadu, 3 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 2 seats in Punjab and one seat each from Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. As no one  opted out of contest, all of them were declared elected to the Council of States by respective returning officers. In Uttar Pradesh, the ruling BSP got seven berths as Congress leader Satish Sharma and BJP's Naqvi were among 11 elected uncontested to the House of Elders.

Besides Sharma and Naqvi, others elected to the Council of States 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 UP on July four, seven belonged to the SP and two to the BSP.

Union Minister and Congress leader Ambika 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.

The three candidates of the ruling DMK, two of the AIADMK and one of the Congress were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu. They are K P Ramalingam, TM Selvaganapathy, S Thangavelu (all DMK), Manoj Pandian and K V Ramalingam (both AIADMK) and E M Sudarsana Natchiappan (Congress).

The 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 by-election arose after BJP's K K Valmiki died earlier 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, legal luminary Ram Jethmalani of the BJP and Santosh Bagrodia who entered the race as an Independent.

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