Union minister G K Vasan, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan, A A Jinna and Vasanthi Stanley of the DMK, N Balaganga from the AIADMK and T K Rengarajan of the Communist Party of India-Marxist were on Wednesday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly secretary M Selvaraj, who was the returning officer, declared them elected as unopposed, when the time for withdrawal of nominations ended.
Barring Vasan and Jayanthi Natarajan, all others are making their maiden entry to the Upper House. It is the first time after 14 years that a CPI-M nominee was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.
In Rajasthan, two Bharatiya Janata Party and one Congress candidates were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.
Om Prakash Mathur and Gyan Prakash Pilania from the BJP and Prabha Thakur of the Congress made it to the Upper House as theirs were the only nominations filed for the three seats.
Pilania, a jat leader, and Thakur, the Mahila Congress President, were re-elected to the Rajya Sabha, whereas Mathur, who is entering the Rajya Sabha for the first time, is the Rajasthan BJP chief.
Six members were declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. After the deadline for withdrawals ended, the State Legislature Secretary handed over the election certificates to five Congress members and one Telugu Desam Party member.
Union minister of state for mines T Subbarami Reddy, Dalit leader Nandi Yellaiah, chief minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy's confidante K V P Ramachandra Rao, former AP Seva Dal president Mohammed Ali Khan and former tribal MLA T Ratna Bai, all from Congress, and TDP founder late N T Rama Rao's son Nandamuri Harikrishna were the six candidates declared elected unopposed.
In Bihar, the withdrawal of Sayed Mehmood Ashraf from the contest paved the way for victories of all the nine nominees, including those from the ruling National Democratic Alliance and chief opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal.
All the nine nominees of ruling Janata Dal-United and BJP were declared elected unopposed, state assembly secretary S P Sharma said.
Sayed Mahmood Ashraf, a relative of independent MLA from Baisi, Mohammed Rukkuddin, who filed his papers for the nine legislative council seats, withdrew from the contest following a request from chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Ashraf, who was present at the press conference of the chief minister, said he was influenced by the 'good work' being done by Kumar and decided to join the ruling JD-U.
JD-U nominees Ramdhani Singh, Satish Prasad, Hira Bind and Haroon Rashid were declared unopposed for the legislative council, while BJP's Kameshwar Chaupal and Giriraj Singh were also declared elected unopposed for the council seats.
In Assam, three candidates were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. As no one else was in the fray, the state assembly secretary, Gauranga Das, formally announced the election of Bhubaneswar Kalita of the Congress, Birendra Prasad Baishya of the Asom Gana Parishad and Biswajit Daimary of Bodoland Peoples Front to the house of elders.
Additional reportage by Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
