Six candidates set to be elected unopposed to Rajya sabha

Mumbai, Mar 17 (UNI) With six candidates from four parties filing their nominations for the six seats in the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra on the last day of filing the papers, all the candidates will be elected unanimously.

Journalist-turned-politician Rajiv Shukla, who was first eleted to the Upper House of Parliament from Uttra Pradesh as Rashtriya Loktantrik Congres candidate, was nominated this time from mharashtra.

Mr Shukla filed his papers this morning. His nomination was in Marathi and he was accompanied by Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Pradesh Congress chief Prabha Rau, Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Mumbai Regional Congress Committe President Gurudas Kamat.

The six MPs who would retire on April 2 are Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar (Cong), R S Gavai (RPI-supported by Cong), Prof Bal Apte (BJP), Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel&Vasant Chavan (NCP) and Ram Jethmalani (Ind).

Of these, three have been renominated by the respective parties--Mr Patel and Mr Chavan by the NCP and Prof Apte by the BJP.

Congress is fielding two new candidates including Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Mr Shukla while Shiv Sena preferred former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi, who had faced a humiliating defeat in the last Lok Sabha elections.

An independent candidate Bharatlal Bhatia has also filed his nomination papers without having any signature of MLAs as the proposer or the seconder and his form will be rejected tomorrow, sources said.

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