Eight candidates, including two Congress rebels, filed their nominations for six RS seats from Andhra Pradesh. T Subbrami Reddy, K V P Ramachandra Rao and M A Khan, all Congress, and Telugu Desam's Garikapati Mohan Rao and Sitarama Lakshmi were among the eight who entered the fray from the state.
Former MP K Keshava Rao, who defected from the Congress, filed his papers as Telangana Rashtra Samiti candidate.
Congress MLC K V Satyanarayana Raju alias Chaitanya Raju and MLA Adala Prabhakar Reddy were the other two candidaes who entered the fray as party rebels in the name of “United Andhra Pradesh.”
BJP's Shambhuprasad Tundiya, Chunibhai Gohil and Lalsinh Vadodiya and Cong's Madhusudhan Mistry, in charge of party's affairs in Uttar Pradesh, filed their papers from Gujarat.
Tundiya is a religious figure belonging to the Dalit community while Gohil is a leader of fishermen community.
Vadodia is a Kshatriya community leader from Central Gujarat's Anand district.
Biswal of the Congress and BJD-supported Mohapatra were among eight persons who filed their nominations from Odisha. The three BJD candidates are Panchayati Raj minister Kalpataru Das, Textile minister Sarojini Hembram and former minister A U Singhdeo.
The tenure of 55 Rajya Sabha members is coming to an end between April 2 and 12.
Seven seats will fall vacant in Maharashtra, six each in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, five each in West Bengal and Bihar, four each in Odisha and Gujarat, three each in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Assam, two each in Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and one each in Manipur, Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh.
