Smooth sailing: Several elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Many Rajya Sabha candidates in several states were on Friday elected unopposed, leaving seats only in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra open for contest. Eleven candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Five in Bihar, three in Madhya Pradesh, two in Punjab, two in Jharkhand and two in Chhattisgarh sailed through smoothly.

In Bihar, 11 candidates that were elected on Friday include eight from Bharatiya Janata Party, one from Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal each, while one candidate was independent backed by SP. The BJP candidates elected unopposed to the Upper House are Darshana Singh, Babu Ram Nishad, Mithilesh Kumar, Radha Mohan Dal Agarwal, K Laxman, Laxmikant Bajpai, Surendra Singh Nagar and Sangeeta Yadav. Jayant Chaudhary from the RLD and Javed Ali Khan from the SP were the two other candidates that made it to the Rajya Sabha. Former Congress leader Kapil Sibal secured a berth in the Parliament as an independent. He was backed by SP.

In Bihar, which is witnessing a rift between two ruling allies BJP and JD-U, the candidates who have made it to Rajya Sabha without contest are Misa Bharti and Faiyaz Ahmed (RJD), Satish Chandra Dubey and Shambhu Sharan Patel (BJP), and Kheeru Mahto (JD-U).  Congress leader and senior lawyer Vivek Tankha and the BJP’s Sumitra Valmiki and Kavita Patidar were declared as elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Mahua Maji and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Aditya Sahu were elected from Jharkhand. Both Maji and Sahu will be making their debuts in the Upper House of Parliament. Amid sharp criticism faced by ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab over the killing of  singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala, its candidates — noted environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal and entrepreneur and social activist Vikramjit Singh Sahney — were elected unopposed on Friday. The ruling Congress’ nominees Rajeev Shukla and Ranjeet Ranjan were elected unopposed from Chhattisgarh.

Securing berth
Eleven candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Five in Bihar, three in Madhya Pradesh, two in Punjab, two in Jharkhand and two in Chhattisgarh have sailed through to RS smoothly.