New Delhi: Union minister Sharad Pawar, Congress leader Murli Deora, RPI's Ramdas Athawale and Vijay Goel (BJP) are likely to be elected unopposed along with 21 others in various states in the February 7 biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha as Digvijay Singh and Kumari Selja entered the fray today.
The victory of at least 25 of the 55 candidates in 16 states is a virtual certainty after tomorrow's scrutiny with theirs being the only serious nominations against as many vacancies in the election.
Among the others who are likely to elected unopposed are Majid Memon (NCP), Hussain Dalwai (Cong), Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), all from Maharashtra, and sitting MP Parimal Nathwani, an independent, from Jharkhand.
JD(U)'s Ramnath Thakur, Kahkasha Parveen and Haribansh from Bihar, and AIADMK's L Sasikala Pushpa, Vijila Sathyanand, A K Selvaraj and S Muthukaruppa, CPI(M)'s T K Rangarajan and Tiruchi N Siva (DMK), all from Tamil Nadu, are also likely to be elected to the Upper House.
As the deadline for filing of papers for the Upper House seats falling vacant in April drew to a close, IPL chairman Ranjib Biswas and master sculptor Rahgunath Mohapatra were among the prominent candidates who filed their nominations from Odisha.
Selja, a known detractor of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and a surprise nominee of the Congress party, filed her papers from Haryana after quitting the Union Cabinet last night.
Putting an end to his ten-year self-imposed “exile” from electoral politics, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh filed his nomination for an RS berth from Madhya Pradesh. After submitting his documents, 67-year-old Digvijay told reporters that he agreed for the RS nomination as he is an organisation man and wants to devote maximum time to it.
Goel, Ram Narain Dudi and Narain Pachariya, all BJP nominees, entered the fray for three Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan, the state election office said.
No other candidates have filed their nominations from the state and all the three are set to be elected unopposed after the last date of withdrawal of papers on January 31.
A total of four candidates, including Sanjay Singh, a Lok Sabha member of the Congress from Sultanpur in UP, entered the fray from Assam.
