ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Ram Pradhan beaten, Mahajan wins RS election

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh, former Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptulla, Pramod Mahajan, the prime minister's former political adviser, and columnists Arun Shourie and Pritish Nandy were among those elected to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

In a complete reversal of poll fortunes, Congress candidate Ram Pradhan was defeated in the elimination round while Independent candidate and newspaper baron Vijay Darda managed a spectacular victory in the first round itself for the biennial election to fill the six vacancies to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.

Mahajan was elected with the highest number of votes in the first round. Another Independent candidate, former railway minister Suresh Kalmadi, was elected in the third round.

Large scale cross-voting marked the election process as in the first round itself, Congress nominees Heptulla and Pradhan, a former Union home secretary, fell short by one and two votes respectively. Heptulla managed to scrape through on Darda's surplus votes since she was listed as the second preference. Ram Pradhan was less fortunate, securing 3,796 votes against the 3,933 of Shiv Sena nominee and sitting MP Satish Pradhan.

Returning officer A N Kalse declared that Ram Pradhan was eliminated under rule 80. The counting began at 1545 hours with the sorting of ballot papers. White papers used for Rajya Sabha were separated from the pink ones for the council. The council papers were again put in the ballot box by the returning officer.

Mahajan won 4,900 votes in the first round whereas Darda got 4,500. The quota was fixed at 4,101 for each of the candidate to win. After the first round, Mahajan's 738 votes were shifted to the candidates of second preference. Surprisingly, Mahajan's three surplus votes went to Darda in the second round. While three more votes were exhausted since no second preference was mentioned in the ballot papers. Mahajan's surplus votes went to Kalmadi and Pritish Nandy.

Nandy got through in the second round while Kalmadi won in the third round with the preference votes transferred from Mahajan. Kalmadi's remaining 97 votes were distributed in the fourth round.

In the last round, Heptulla received six votes from Darda. Three votes were exhausted as no preference was mentioned in the ballot paper while the other three went to Ram Pradhan. But, Pradhan still could not reach the requirement of 4,101. Hence he was defeated in the elimination round. Satish Pradhan also could not complete the quota, but was declared elected on the basis of number of votes received.

Jaswant Singh, former Indian high commissioner to Britain Dr L M Singhvi (both of the BJP), sitting Congress legislator Ahammuddin Ahmed Khan and industrialist Santhosh Bagdodiya (both of the Congress) were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.

In a blow to the ruling BJP, outgoing Rajya Sabha member R P Modi, an Independent supported by the party, lost the election.

Former Union minister and industrialist Kamal Morarka, who contested as a Samajwadi Janata Party nominee, also lost, returning officer Mahesh Tanwar said.

As many as 145 of the total 147 members in the Orissa assembly today cast their votes in the biennial election for three Rajya Sabha seats from Orissa.

The notable absentees were Orissa Janata Dal president Ashok Das and SUCI MLA Sambhunath Nayak.

Four candidates, three from the Congress and the other from the Biju Janata Dal, backed by the BJP, were in the fray. While the Congress fielded former Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra, trade union leader Ram Chandra Khuntia and historian Manmath Nath Das, the BJD fielded its sitting MLA and former minister A U Singdeo in the election.

Tell us what you think of this report