New Delhi: Union Ministers Arjun Singh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Praful Patel, Hansraj Bhardwaj and Dasari Narayan Rao led a galaxy of political heavyweights who were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday for the biennial elections to fill 59 seats from 15 States.

The Opposition ranks were bolstered by the election of the former Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena), and the former Delhi Chief Minister, Sushma Swaraj (Bhartiya Janata Party).

Mr. Shinde, Mr. Patel (Nationalist Congress Party), Mr. Joshi, journalist-turned-politician Rajiv Shukla (Congress), Vasant Chavan (NCP) and Prof. Bal Apte (BJP) were elected from Maharashtra.

These six will be filling up the vacancies on April 2 against the retiring members — Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar (Congress), R.S. Gavai (RPI-supported by Congress), Mr. Patel and Mr. Chavan, Prof. Apte and Mr. Ram Jethmalani (Independent).

Mr. Arjun Singh and former Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Vikram Verma (both BJP) were among the five candidates elected unopposed from Madhya Pradesh. The other two were BJP nominees Narayan Singh Kesri and Anasuiya Uike.

Of the five seats falling vacant, the Congress held three and the BJP two. For the lone seat winnable by the Congress, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh had been re-nominated. Newspaper baron P.K. Maheshwari has not been re-nominated, while Union Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj, who earlier represented the State, was fielded from Haryana.

Mr. Bhardwaj was declared elected unopposed from Haryana to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of sitting member Faquir Chand.

Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines Dasari Narayan Rao, INTUC national president G. Sanjeeva Reddy, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Keshava Rao, Azeez Pasha (CPI), M.V. Mysoora Reddy (TDP), and Rashid Alvi (Congress) were elected unopposed from Andhra Pradesh.

At the end of the deadline for withdrawal at 3 p.m. on Monday, Returning Officer K. Tuljanand Singh, the State Legislature Secretary, declared the six candidates elected unopposed to fill the six seats from Andhra Pradesh in the biennial elections.

BJP leaders Ramdas Agarwal and Krishan Lal Valmiki and Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress were declared elected unopposed from Rajasthan.

Those elected unopposed from Orissa included BJP nominees Rudra Narayan Pani and Bhagirathi Majhi, BJD nominee Baijant Panda and Congress candidate Sushila Tiriya. Mr. Pani and Mr. Panda were re-nominated by their parties. The BJP had fielded tribal leader Bhagirathi Majhi following the expulsion of Chhatrapal Singh Lodha from the Rajya Sabha in the wake of the cash-for-query sting operation.

S.S. Ahluwalia (BJP) and Mabel Rebello (Congress) were declared elected unopposed from Jharkhand.

Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Viplove Thakur was elected from the lone seat in the State falling vacant due to the expiry of the term of the current incumbent Kripal Parmar.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Shree Gopal Vyas was elected unopposed from Chhattisgarh. The ruling BJP in the State had fielded Mr. Vyas, who is in charge of foreign affairs of the VHP. Elections will be held at the end of this month in Bihar (6 seats), Gujarat (4), Karnataka (4), Uttar Pradesh (10), Uttaranchal (1) and West Bengal (5).

In Karnataka, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rehman Khan of the Congress and leading industrialist Rajeev Chandrasekhar, an independent backed by the State's ruling coalition partners, JD(S) and BJP, are among six candidates left in the fray.

Among the others in the race are K.B. Shanappa (BJP), M. Rajasekhara Murthy (JD-S), eminent writer U.R. Ananta Murthy and Chennappa Mallappa, both independents.

Former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is among the seven candidates for six seats in Bihar where polling will be held on March 29, a day after the exercise in the other States.

In Uttar Pradesh, none of the 13 candidates for the 10 seats withdrew from the contest. The ruling Samajwadi Party has fielded five candidates, its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal one, the main Opposition BSP three, the BJP two and the Congress one candiate. Industrialist Sudhanshu Mittal is the lone independent candidate in the fray.

PTI, UNI

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