Arjun, 4 others elected unopposed

Bhopal, Mar 20: Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh and former Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Vikram Verma were among five candidates elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh today..

BJP nominees Narayan Singh Kesri and Ms Anasuiya Uike were also declared elected to the Rajya Sabha in the biennial elections.

As the deadline for withdrawal of nominations expired today, Returning Officer and Madhya Pradesh Assembly Principal Secretary Dr A K Payasi declared Congress candidate Arjun Singh and BJP nominees Sushma Swaraj, Vikram Verma, Narayan Singh Kesri and Ms Anasuiya Uike elected unopposed as only five candidates filed their papers to fill up as many seats falling vacant next month.

All nomination papers filed by the five candidates-three sets by Mr Singh and two each by others- were found valid during scrutiny on Saturday.

Of the five seats falling vacant, Congress held three and BJP two. For the lone seat winnable by the Congress, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh had been renominated.

Newspaper baron P K Maheshwari has not been renominated, while Union Law Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj, who earlier represented the state in the upper house, has now been fielded from Haryana.

While renominating Mr Vikram Verma and Mr Narayan Singh Kesri, the BJP fielded former Delhi Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj and former MLA Anasuiya Uike, a tribal, also from the state.

Ms Sushma Swaraj, Mr Vikram Verma, Mr Narayan Singh Kesri and Ms Anasuiya Uike(all BJP) personally collected their election certificate from the Returning Officer, after the announcement of the results. However, on behalf of the ailing Union Minister Arjun Singh, his representative Virendra Tiwari collected the certiicate, an Assembly spokesman said.

UNI