7 Union ministers win RS polls unopposed, Jaitley in race from UP

◗ The stage is set for the March 23 contest in six states, including UP from where finance minister Arun Jaitley is in the fray

New Delhi, March 15: Seven Union ministers, including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar, were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, while the stage is set for the March 23 contest in six states, including Uttar Pradesh from where finance minister Arun Jaitley is in the fray.

Law minister Mr Prasad and HRD minister Mr Javadekar were elected from their homes states Bihar and Maharashtra respectively, while petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot made it to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. Health minister J. P. Nadda got elected unopposed from Himachal Pradesh.

Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandavia also got elected from Gujarat without a contest.

Official nominees of major parties were elected unopposed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

There would be contest for electoral laurels in six states, including UP, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana where there are more nominees than seats up for grabs.

Biennial elections are being held for 58 Rajya Sabha seats across 16 state.

A bypoll will also be held on March 23 for one seat in Kerala, where M. P. Veerendra Kumar, the Left- backed candidate of Sharad Yadav faction of the JD( U), is pitted against Babu Prasad of the Congress. Veerendra Kumar had resigned from the Rajya Sabha to protest against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to return to the NDA fold which created the vacancy.

There are 11 candidates in the fray for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, including BJP’s Jaitley and Jaya Bachchan of Samajwadi Party.

Arithmetically, the BJP can easily win eight out of the 10 seats.