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Army ex-chief Gen Roychowdhury enters Rajya Sabha

Senior Congress politician Pranab Mukherjee and former army chief General Shankar Roychowdhury were among six candidates declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal today.

Others elected were Revolutionary Socialist Party nominee Abani Roy and Jiban Roy, Sarla Maheswari and Chadrakala Pandey (all CPI-M).

Barring Abani Roy, the others were given the certificates by West Bengal assembly secretary Naseer Khan, who was also the returning officer for the polls, in his chamber after the expiry of the scheduled time for withdrawal of nominations at 1500 IST today.

Their election was a foregone conclusion after the nominations of all of them were found valid during scrutiny on Thursday. General Roychowdhury, who filed his papers as an independent, was supported by all parties.

Later, talking to newsmen at the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee office, Mukherjee, who was elected to the upper house for the fifth term, said: "This is for the first time that I have been elected unopposed."

UNI

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