Rahman Khan, Shanappa, Murthy, Chandrasekhar elected to RS

New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan (Congress), K B Shanappa (BJP), M Rajasekhara Murthy (JD-S) and industrialist Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Ind) were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka today.

Mr Tapan Kumar Sen, Mr Mainul Hassan Ahamed, Mr Saman Pathak (all CPI-M), Dr Barun Mukherjee (Forward Bloc) and Mr Mukul Roy of the Trinamool Congress were elected to the Upper House from West Bengal.

While it was a cakewalk for Mr Khan, Mr Shanappa and Mr Murthy owing to their parties' strength in the Karnataka Assembly, there was a keen fight for the fourth seat among three independent candidates, including eminent litterateur U R Ananthamurthy. However, it was Mr Chandrasekhar who eventually won the election, with the maximum number of votes polled -- 53.

Dr Ananthamurthy had to be content with just 24 votes.

Kolkata Corporation former Mayor Subrata Mukherjee of the Congress lost the battle as he failed to garner enough first preferential votes in a keenly contested poll. Mr Mukherjee got only 33 votes, including six from among the non-Congreess members of the House.

All the Left Front candidates together polled 190 votes, each needing about 48 first preferential votes, while the Trinamool candidate could garner 56 votes.

Biennial elections were held to fill 59 seats in the Rajya Sabha from 15 states.

UNI Team RP RK1952