Patil, Najma join Rajya Sabha race

Congress not to support Ambani's candidature for Rajya Sabha elections to be held on June 28

In an interesting twist, the BJP fielded hotelier Lalit Suri from UP instead of the original plan to have him contest from Orissa.

Suri was billed as an independent candidate supported by the BJP presumably to break off votes from other parties as well. The BJP has just two seats in its share from UP.

The relationship between Samajwadi leader Amar Singh and Suri is very close and the chances are the SP will be able to help Suri win from UP as an independent but not as a BJP candidate, which is why Suri has joined the fray as an independent.

Among the others who filed nominations were Kiran Choudhary from the Congress from Haryana, Capt Satish Sharma from Uttaranchal, former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi and film actress Jaya Bachhan were candidates from UP among nine others.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil filed his nomination from Maharashtra after losing the Lature Lok Sabha seat.

Former Vice-Chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptullah, former union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Rajasthan BJP chief, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Jat Mahasabha leader Gyan Prakash Pilania were the others who filled up forms as BJP candidates from Rajasthan.

Former union minister Yashwant Sinha and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate and leader of the opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly Stefan Marandi are the candidates for the upper House from Jharkhand.

The largest complement of candidates came from UP. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and former Advocate General of the state SC Mishra had filed their nomination papers earlier from UP.

While Jaya Bachhan, Bhagawati Singh, Ram Narain Sahu, Nand Kishore and Kamal Akhtar filed nominations as SP candidates, Joshi and former union minister Arun Shourie filed their nominations as BJP candidates.

Tomorrow is the last date for filing of nominations while the last date for withdrawal of names is June 21.

From Bihar, Vidya Sagar Nishad, Mangani Lal Mandal, Subhash Yadav and Motiur Rehman (all RJD), Capt. Jai Narain Nishad (BJP) and RK Dhawan of the Congress, filed their nomination.

JD(U) nominee Sharad Yadav will file his papers on the last date of filing nomination papers tomorrow. Pyarelal Khandelwal, along with Laxminarayan Sharma, S Thirunavu-karasar and Narayan Singh Kesari, filed their papers for the elections slated on june 28, from Madhya Pradesh.

Thirunavukkarasar joined the BJP in Tamil Nadu but because he had earlier defected from AIADMK, was denied a ticket by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. On that occasion, he was promised a seat by the BJP.

Meanwhile, the Congress today dismissed the possibility of supporting Ambani in the Rajya Sabha election from UP and did not rule out fielding its own candidate in the poll.

"If Ambani is contesting on a Congress ticket, he has not come to us. Where is the question of support?" quipped party spokesman Satyavrata Chaturvedi when asked if the party would be backing Ambani.

Ambani has filed his papers as an independent candidate supported by the Samajwadi Party. The Congress, which is supporting Mulayam Singh Yadav government from outside, has 16 MLAs in the 403-member UP Assembly. With the current strength of 391 members and requires at least another 17 MLAs to win a Rajya Sabha seat in the state.

On the possibility of an electoral tie-up in the state for the Rajya Sabha polls, he said such possibilities were there but ruled out any such alignment with Samajwadi Party. "Any possibility for a tie-up with the SP for the Rajya Sabha polls is remote," he said.

Meanwhile, senior party leaders from the state, including UPCC president Jagdambika Pal, CLP leader Pramod Tiwari and former UPCC chief Salman Khurshid met Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress chief, to discuss the party strategy on fielding a candidate in the state.

Though the names of Tiwari, Khurshid and Santosh Singh, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Azamgarh, were doing rounds in political circles, sources said a final decision was yet awaited.

RLD leader Ajit Singh, whose party has 13 MLAs in the state is understood to have declined to support a Congress candidate saying he was committed to back the Samajwadi Party nominees as his party was an alliance partner in the Yadav-led government.

The Congress sources, however, insisted that it had not given up the idea of fielding a candidate as such a move would expose certain political forces in the state.