Senior leaders P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Jayant Chaudhary, Misa Bharti, Sasmit Patra, and V Vijayasai Reddy were among 41 candidates from 11 states who were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures has passed, and it is now clear that Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Haryana will have high-stakes elections on June 10.
Biennial elections are taking place to fill 57 seats across 15 states.
The entry of media baron Kartikeya Sharma as the third candidate for the two seats in Haryana, and Subhash Chandra, the founder of Zee Media, as an independent with the support of the fifth candidate for the four seats in Rajasthan, has forced elections in both states.
In Karnataka, the ruling BJP, the Congress, and the JD(S) have put up candidates for the fourth seat, necessitating an election. The BJP has three candidates, the Congress has two, and the JD(S) has one for the four seats in Karnataka. In Maharashtra, there are seven candidates in the running for the six vacant seats.
Of the 41 candidates who won unopposed, 11 are from Uttar Pradesh – eight from the BJP, one from SP, one from RLD, and Sibal, an independent backed by the party. The Samajwadi Party candidate was former Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali Khan. The RLD candidate was its chief Chaudhary.
Those from the BJP who won include former state unit chief Laxmikant Bajpai and national OBC morcha chief K Laxman.
Congress’s Chidambaram was among the six candidates who won from Tamil Nadu. Those elected from Bihar are RJD supremo Lalu Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti and her party colleague Faiyaz Ahmed, JD(U)’s Khiru Mahto, and BJP’s Satish Chandra Dubey and Shambhu Sharan Patel. Senior Congress leader Rajeev Shukla and AICC secretary Ranjeeta Ranjan were elected from .
Congress leader Vivek Tankha and the BJP’s Sumitra Valmiki and Kavita Patidar were elected from Madhya Pradesh. The two nominees of the ruling TRS won unopposed in Telangana. In Odisha, the ruling BJD’s three candidates, including Patra, won unopposed.
Four candidates of the ruling YSRCP, including Reddy, were declared elected in Andhra Pradesh. In Jharkhand, ruling JMM’s Mahua Maji and BJP’s Aditya Sahu were declared elected unopposed. In Punjab, two AAP candidates were elected unopposed. In Uttarakhand, the lone winner was the BJP’s Kalpana Saini.
