Four Congress nominees, including Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and former Andhra Chief Minister N Janardhana Reddy, and two of the Telugu Desam Party were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha today while Ambika Soni of the Congress and journalist Chandan Mitra are poised to enter the House of Elders.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Satish Sharma, legal luminary Ram Jethmalani and liqour baron Vijay Mallya were among a host of aspirants who entered the fray for the biennial polls to the Rajya Sabha on the last day of filing nominations.
With six aspirants in the race for as many Upper House berths from Andhra Pradesh after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations drew to close this evening, all of them were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha by the Returning Officer.
They are Union environment and forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, V Hanumantha Rao and J D Seelam, a retired Indian Administrative Service officer, of the ruling Congress and Gundu Sudha Rani and Y Satyanarayana Choudary, a businessman, of the main opposition TDP.
The two TDP nominees are making their debut in the Rajya Sabha.
Union Minister and Congress leader Ambika Soni and Shiromani Akali Dal general secretary Balwinder Singh Bhunder are all set to bag the Rajya Sabha seats from Punjab.
With both in the fray for as may berths from Punjab, they all set to enter the Upper House after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ends on June 10.
Soni has been renominated by the Congress while Bhunder has replaced Shiromani Akali Dal's Raj Mohinder Singh.
Bharatiya Janata Party hopefuls -- Chandan Mitra and Anil Madhav Dave -- and Vijay Laxmi Sadho of the Congress -- are likely to bag RS seats from Madhya Pradesh.
Only three candidates are vying for as many seats from the state.
BJP's spokesman Tarun Vijay has virtually bagged the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Uttarakhand. He is the only one in the race from the hill state.
