Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Piyush Goyel, former JD(U) President Sharad Yadav and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Goyal, eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani, Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharati, are among those who have been elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y Satyanarayana Chowdary were elected unanimously to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. Two other candidates T G Venkatesh and V Vijaysai Reddy were also elected unopposed to the Upper House from the state.
While Ram Jethmalani and Misa Bharti were elected on RJD ticket, Sharad Yadav and RCP Singh, a close confidante of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, were JD(U) nominees and Gopal Narayan Singh was BJP candidate from Bihar.
Piyush Goyal and P Chidambaram have been elected unopposed to the Upper House from Maharashtra. A Vidhan Bhawan official said in Mumbai that other candidates elected to the Upper House from the state are former union minister Praful Patel (NCP), Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Vikas Mahatme of BJP and Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena.
BJP candidate Ram Vichar Netam and Congress nominee Chhaya Verma have also been declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Chhattisgarh. Both BJP and Congress had fielded new faces this time for the Upper House from the state.
Former Odisha Finance Minister Prasana Kumar Acharya, former School and Mass Education Minister Bishnu Das and Deputy Chairman of Odisha State Planning Board N Bhaskar Rao, all from the ruling Biju Janata dal (BJD), were also declared elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed.
Six Rajya Sabha nominees, four from ruling AIADMK and two belonging to DMK, were elected unopposed to the Upper House from Tamil Nadu yesterday. R Vaithilingam, A Navaneethakrishnan, A Vijayakumar, former Union Minister SR Balasubramoniyan from AIADMK and RS Bharathi and TKS Elangovan from DMK were declared elected.
Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni and Balwinder Singh Bhunder of Shiromani Akali Dal have been re-elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Punjab. Returning Officer and Secretary of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Shashi Lakhanpal declared them elected unopposed after the end of withdrawal of nominations yesterday. Mrs Soni and Mr.Bhunder are members of Rajya Sabha from Punjab and their retirement is due on 4th of July after which their new tenure will start.
In Rajasthan, polling for the four Rajya Sabha seats will take place on 11 June as no candidate withdraw their nomination yesterday, the last day for withdrawal. Four BJP candidate, including Union Minister M Venkaiya Naidu and one Independent candidate, with support by opposition had filed nominations for the four seats.