The Hindu : National : Shivraj Patil, Ambika Soni elected to Rajya Sabha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 22, 2004

National

National

Shivraj Patil, Ambika Soni elected to Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI, JUNE 21. The Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, the Health Minister, R. Anbumani, the former BJP Union Ministers, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Dilip Singh Judev, and Pramod Mahajan, the Congress leaders, Ambika Soni, Capt. Satish Sharma and Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, and the outgoing Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson, Najma Heptulla, were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha today in the biennial elections for 57 seats.

The Congress retained its majority and will continue to call the shots in the Upper House of Parliament.

Mr. Patil and Mr. Mahajan were elected from Maharashtra. Others elected are the chairman and managing director of the Lokmat group of newspapers, Vijay Darda (Congress), the executive editor of Saamna, Sanjay Raut, and the Shetkari Sanghatana leader, Sharad Joshi (both on Shiv Sena ticket), and Tariq Anwar (NCP).

Mr. Dilip Singh Judev and the senior Congress leader, Mohsina Kidwai, were elected unopposed from Chhattisgarh.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP leader, Narayan Singh Kesri, was elected unopposed in the by-elections to the seat vacated by the Lok Sabha member, Kailash Joshi. Elections for three full-term seats would be held on June 28. The BJP leaders, Pyarelal Khandelwal, Laxminarayan Sharma and S. Thirunavukarasar, and the Congress leader, Aziz Quereshi, are in the fray.

The former Union Minister and JD(U) candidate, Sharad Yadav, and the Congress candidate, R.K. Dhawan, were among the candidates from Bihar who were elected unopposed. The Rashtriya Janata Dal candidates, Subhash Yadav, Mangni Lal Mandal, Vidya Sagar Nishad and Moitur Rehman, and the BJP candidate, Capt. Jai Narain Nishad, were also elected from the State.

Ms. Najma Heptulla and Mr. Jaswant Singh were elected from Rajasthan. Others elected from the State are the State BJP chief, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi, the Jat Mahasabha patron, Gyan Prakash Pilania, and industrialist Santosh Bagrodia.

Besides Dr. Anbumani (Pattali Makkal Katchi), the others elected from Tamil Nadu were T.TV. Dinakaran, K. Malaisamy, N.R. Govindarajar and S. Anbazhagan (all belonging to the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Sudarsana Natchiappan (Congress).

The AICC secretary, Jairam Ramesh, industrialist Girish Sanghi and the former BSP leader, Rashid Alvi, were elected unopposed from Andhra Pradesh. The senior Congress leader, V. Hanumanth Rao, bureaucrat Jesudasu Seelam, the Telugu Desem Party leader, C. Ramachandraiah, and the CPI(M) nominee, P. Madhu, were also declared elected.

From Orissa, Chhatrapal Singh (BJP), Pyarimohan Mohapatra (Biju Janata Dal) and Radhakant Nayak (Congress) were elected unopposed for full six year terms. Rudranarayan Pani (BJP) was elected in the by-election held against a vacancy caused by the resignation of Manmohan Samal, who was elected to the State Assembly.

Elections will be held on June 28 in Karnataka to fill four seats, for which five candidates are in the fray. Only one nominee had backed out by the end of the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations today. Prabhavati Jairam of the Janata Dal (Secular) withdrew her papers on June 18. The contestants are the Union Minister, Oscar Fernandes, the Congress secretary, B.K. Hariprasad, the BJP national president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, the BJP leader, Shakuntala Hegde, and the Chennai-based industrialist, M.A.M. Ramaswamy (JD-S).

— UNI, PTI

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