Barring 2 states, RS picks to sail through
UP’S RULING BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY (BJP) ON THURSDAY WITHDREW TWO OF ITS CANDIDATES BUT KEPT NINE OF THEM IN THE FRAY WHICH WILL LEAD TO AN ELECTION
NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha candidates in most states were elected unopposed on Thursday after the last day of withdrawal of nominations, except in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Candidates in the fray from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh sailed through unopposed.
UP’S ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday withdrew two of its candidates but kept nine of them in the fray which will lead to an election on March 23.
The party had fielded 11 candidates for ten Rajya Sabha seats. It will win eight seats because of its strength in the house.
As the Samajwadi Party (SP) is assured of a seat, there will be contest for the 10th slot between the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The BSP is banking on access to SP and Congress votes, while the BJP is hoping for cross-voting by the Opposition’s legislators. The BSP-SP alliance on Wednesday defeated the BJP in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls.
The BSP has named loyalist Bhim Rao Ambedkar as its candidate while the SP has nominated actress-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan once again.
The nine official BJP candidates in the fray are — Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpayi, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakaldeep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, GVL Narsimha Rao, Harnath Singh Yadav and Anil Agarwal.
In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is assured of winning three of the five seats. It is also supporting Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. However, there is a contest for the fifth seat between the Left and others.
The possibility of the contest in Gujarat and Maharashtra ended after the BJP withdrew its additional candidates.
Four candidates — two each of the Congress and the BJP — were elected unopposed from Gujarat. In Maharashtra, all six RS candidates — HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, former chief minister Narayan Rane, journalist Kumar Ketkar, Anil Desai, Vandana Chavan — were declared elected unopposed.
The election commission (EC) had last month announced elections for 59 Rajya Sabha seats on February 23.