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Congress backs Heptulla, ex-cabinet secretary, legal luminaries for RS polls

Congress general secretary Oscar Fernandes said party president Sonia Gandhi had approved the names of the party nominees in six states, besides the three seats to legislative council in the states of Maharashtra and Bihar. The list has no defeated candidate in the list as decided by the party.

Bal Kavi Bairagi, Jhumak Lal Bhedia, Mabel Rebello are the party nominees from Madhya Pradesh while Justice Mishra and Ramachandra Kuntia will be the nominees from Orissa.

Dr Heptulla has been renominated from Maharashtra, along with R D Pradhan. Aimauddin Ahmed Khan (the nawab of Loharu) and Santosh Bagrodia are the two party nominess from Rajasthan. Kapil Sibal, who unsuccessfully contested the 1996 general election from New Delhi on a Congress ticket, has become the lone party nominee from Bihar while Khan Gugran Zahidi has gained renomination from Uttar Pradesh.

Ranjit Deshmukh and Vasant Chavan have been given the party nomination for the Maharashtra legislative council while Vibha Ranjan is the nominee for the Upper House in Bihar.

In Mahrashtra, Heptulla and former Cabinet secretary Ram Pradhan today filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election.

Seven nominations have been filed so far by candidates of the respective parties. Among the candidates are sitting Shiv Sena MP Satish Pradhan, journalist and Rediff On The NeT columnist Pritish Nandy as the Sena candidates, while Suresh Kalmadi filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate. Kalmadi's name was proposed by 10 Independent members of the state assembly supporting who support the ruling BJP-Sena alliance government.

Vijay Darda, managing editor of the Lokmat Times, filed his papers as an independent yesterday from the state. He is supported by by the pro-Congress independent members of the state legislative assembly while Heptulla and Ram Pradhan filed their papers today.

The biennial election to the Rajya Sabha is scheduled to be held on June 18. The last date for filing nominations is June 6 while the scrutiny is to be held on June 8. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is June 10.

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