Barring eight independents, the nomination papers of all key candidates, including senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, were found valid in scrutiny for the June 11 Rajya Sabha biennial elections across 15 states.
The stage is set for a contest in Uttar Pradesh and in Haryana while Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Chidambaram are among those who are set to be elected to the Upper House unopposed.
A battle in UP is inevitable unless two candidates, including independent Preeti Mahapatra, a social worker, withdraw their nominations by June 3. There are 12 candidates for 11 vacancies that will entail voting.
Several BJP MLAs, members of small parties and independents are backing Mahapatra.
Seven candidates of SP and two of BSP, including national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal and BJP's Shiv Pratap Shukla are others who are in the fray.
In 403-member UP Assembly ruling SP has 229 MLAs, BSP 80, BJP 41, Congress 29, besides some smaller parties and Independents. Each candidate requires 37 votes for a win.
In Maharashtra, papers of all the six candidates, including Chidambaram and Piyush Goyal were found valid, and they are set to be elected unopposed as there are as many vacancies from the state. The others are Praful Patel (NCP), BJP's Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Vikas Mahatme and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut.
In Tamil Nadu, nomination papers of seven independents and of one independent in Karnataka were rejected during scrutiny, paving the way for election of six nominees, four from ruling AIADMK and two belonging to DMK, unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.
Nomination papers of R Vaithilingam, A Navaneethakrishnan, A Vijayakumar, former Union Minister SR Balasubramoniyan (all AIADMK), and those of RS Bharathi and TKS Elangovan (DMK) were valid.
With the election of four MPs, the strength of ruling AIADMK will go up to 12 from the present 11 in Rajya Sabha.
There will be no change in the number of DMK MPs which will continue to be four.
From Tamil Nadu, Congress Party will have no representation in the Upper House.
In Karnataka, an independent candidate's nomination was rejected during scrutiny today for not enclosingproposers' names and an additional affidavit, but the papers of three Congress candidates, including former unionministers Jairam Ramesh, Oscar Fernandes, were found valid as was that of union minister Nirmala Seetharaman.
Congress' decision to field third candidate, Ramamurthy, has given anxious moments to JD-S which needs five additional votes to see its candidate through, as it has 40 members.
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Five JD-S legislators, including Zameer Ahmed, have
reportedly decided to back the third candidate of Congress.
The nominations of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who has been assured ally TDP's support from Andhra Pradesh, media baron Subhash Chandra and noted lawyer R K Anand, both in fray in Haryana as Independent candidates and BJP leader M J Akbar from Madhya Pradesh were also found in order.
The papers of Chaudhary Birendra Singh was also found in order in Haryana.
The nomination of another senior Congress leader Ambika Soni was also found valid in Punjab along with that ruling Akali Dal's B S Bhunder.
In Haryana, Chandra claimed to have garnered support from ruling BJP and some MLAs cutting across party lines for the second seat in the state while main opposition Indian National Lok Dal backed R K Anand who had also fought Lok Sabha polls in the past as the party candidate.
Senior TRS leaders D Srinivas and Capt V Lakshmikanta filed their nominations from Telangana and both appear set to be elected unopposed as no other candidate filed the papers to fill two vacancies.
In AP, besides Prabhu, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary and former state minister T G Venkatesh filed thir papers as TDP nominees.
While Chowdary is seeking an election to the Upper House for a second straight term, Venkatesh is seeking his maiden entry. Both are industrialists-turned-politicians.
With its combined strength of 108 in the 176-member AP Assembly, ruling TDP-BJP can comfortably bag three seats. TDP has given one seat for ally BJP which is part of N Chandrababu Naidu government in the state.
In Bihar, senior leader Sharad Yadav, R C P Singh (JDU), Ram Jethmalani and Misa Bharti (RJD) of the state's ruling Grand Alliance and former state BJP President Gopal Narayan Singh, are in fray. All are expected to win as there are five vacancies.
