PC, Goyal, Jayant and other key leaders file papers for RS polls

THE LAST DATE OF FILING THE RS NOMINATIONS IS MAY 31 AND THE STAKES ARE HIGH FOR ALL 57 SEATS, ACROSS 15 STATES

HT correspondents

NEW DELHI/BHOPAL/LUCKNOW/ CHENNAI/ BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Union minister Piyush Goyal, former ministers P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and Praful Patel, as well as Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary were among those who filed nominations for the Rajya Sabha on Monday, ahead of elections on June 10.

The last date of filing nominations is May 31 and the stakes are high for all 57 seats, across 15 states.

Goyal was joined by Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik to file nominations for Maharashtra. The BJP has announced 22 candidates so far.

The BJP in Maharashtra has enough votes to win two seats on its own while the ruling alliance partners Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress — constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — have the votes to get one candidate each elected separately. Together, they can get one more candidate elected to the Upper House of Parliament.

Meanwhile, from the MVA side, senior NCP leader Praful Patel and the Congress’s Imran Pratapgarhi — who hails from Uttar Pradesh and heads the party’s minority cell — also filed their nominations on Monday.

Speaking of the Congress, former union minister Chidambaram filed his nomination from his home state of Tamil Nadu for the first time. His colleague in the Upper House, Jairam Ramesh also filed his fresh nomination from Karnataka accompanied by Mansoor Ali Khan.

In Bhopal, Congress MP Vivek Tankha also looked set to return to Rajya Sabha, filing his nomination accomapanied by former chief minister Kamal Nath.

In Lucknow, RLD national president Chaudhary filed his nomination as a joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and RLD. Accompanied by former chief minister and SP president Akhilesh Yadav, Chaudhary said the SP-RLD alliance would grow stronger.