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Jaya, Anil Ambani, Najma file papers for RS poll
Tribune News Service

Former External Affairs Minister and BJP national spokesman Yashwant Sinha being greeted by Babulal Marandi, MP and former Chief Minister, Jharkhand, after filing nomination paper for the Rajya Sabha elections from Jharkhand, Ranchi, on Wednesday. — PTI photos

New Delhi, June 16
The Upper House of Parliament is going to be full of luminaries as not only professional politicians like Shivraj Patil, R Anbumani, Najma Heptullah, Venkaiah Naidu, Jaswant Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi but also industrialists and filmstars like Anil Ambani, Lalit Suri and Jaya Bachchan filed nominations today for the June 28 biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Lokmat group of newspapers Vijay Darda filed their papers from Maharashtra.

Apart from Mr Patil and Mr Darda who have been fielded by the Congress, other candidates in the fray are NCP's Tariq Anwar, BJP's Pramod Mahajan and the Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut and Sharad Joshi.

Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni filed her papers for the ensuing Rajya Sabha elections from Punjab. She had recently resigned her Delhi Rajya Sabha seat even though she had 18 months left for her tenure.

Former Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptullah files nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections in presence of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Jaipur on Wednesday.

Besides, Mrs Soni, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Rajmohinder Singh has filed his papers for the three vacant Rajya Sabha seats from the state. The Congress is yet to name its second candidate from Punjab. The Congress is in a position to win two seats from Punjab while one seat would go to the Akalis.

Union Health Minister and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) Organising Secretary R Anbumani filed his nomination papers in Chennai.

In Rajasthan, all four BJP candidates, including outgoing Rajya Sabha Chairperson Najma Heptullah and former Union Minister Jaswant Singh, filed their nominations. The other candidates are state BJP President Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Jat Mahasabha patron Gyan Prakash Pilania, who filed his papers for the bypoll.

Samajwadi Party candidate Jaya Bachchan files nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections in the presence of Samajwadi Party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Reliance CMD Anil Ambani and Bharat Hotels CMD Lalit Suri, actress Jaya Bachchan and journalist Arun Shourie filed their papers from Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh said in Lucknow that Mr Ambani would contest the Rajya Sabha elections as an Independent backed by his party. Mr Suri is being supported by the BJP.

The other SP candidates who filed nominations today are Leader of the House in the Legislative Council Bhagwati Singh, Ram Narain Sahu, Nand Kishore Yadav and Kamal Akhtar.

Former Chief Minister and BSP President Mayawati and former UP Advocate-General Satish Chandra Mishra (BSP) had filed their papers on Monday.

Meanwhile, the CPM will field veteran leader P Madhu for the Rajya Sabha seat from Andhra Pradesh, party state Secretary B V Raghavulu told newspersons. He said Mr Madhu would file his nomination tomorrow.

The Congress has offered one seat to the CPM, its electoral ally. The CPM has nine members and the CPI has six in the 294-member House. The Congress has agreed to give its surplus votes to the Left party.

Congress nominee R K Dhawan and Capt Jay Narayan Nishad of the BJP figured in the list of six candidates for seven Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar who filed their nomination papers today.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) nominees include Subhash Prasad Yadav, brother of Chief Minister Rabri Devi, Motiur Rahman, Vidyasagar Nishad and Manganilal Mandal while the party extended support to Congress candidate R K Dhawan.

JD (U) nominee and former Union Civil Supplies Minister Sharad Yadav would file his papers tomorrow, party sources said.

RJD candidate Vidyasagar Nishad, if elected, will have a tenure of two years, the period left by Rajiv Ranjan Singh, who vacated the seat following his election to the Lok Sabha. Similarly, Mr Mandal has been nominated against the seat vacated by Laloo Prasad Yadav and the former will remain Rajya Sabha member for the balance period of four years.

Four nomination papers were filed by the BJP for elections to as many seats in Madhya Pradesh. The candidates are Pyarelal Khandelwal, Narain Singh Kesri and S Thirunavukarasu while Laxminarayan Sharma will contest a bypoll necessitated by the resignation of state BJP President Kailash Joshi, following his election to the Lok Sabha from Bhopal.

Tomorrow is the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny will be taken up on June 18 while the last date for withdrawal is June 21.

In Karnataka, BJP President Venkaiah Naidu and Shakuntala Hegde, widow of former Karnataka Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde, filed their nominations. Mr Naidu is seeking re-election from Karnataka through the biennial election to fill four vacancies.

While the ruling Congress is fielding two candidates, its partner in the government, the Janata Dal (Secular), is nominating one candidate. Union Minister of State for Planning Oscar Fernandes, whose term is coming to an end, is seeking re-election. The JD (S) nominee B K Hariprasad filed his nominations. The party is also contemplating to field industrialist M A M Ramaswamy.

In Orissa, former Union Minister and BJP leader from UP Chhatrapal Singh, retired bureaucrat Pyari Mohan Mohapatra and state BJP leader Rudra Narayan Pani filed nominations. While Mr Chhatrapal Singh and Mr Pani filed their nominations as BJP candidates, Mr Mohapatra filed his papers as Biju Janata Dal candidate.

The Congress, which has the required strength to send one member to the Rajya Sabha, has nominated retired bureaucrat Radhakant Nayak for the post.

The Biju Janata Dal, which has a strength of 61 members in the 147- member House, has supported the candidature of Mr Chhatrapal Singh who would require at least five more first reference votes from the BJD to go through the elections as the BJP has only 32 members, five short of the required first preference votes.

Meanwhile, the BJP today declared Delhi hotelier Lalit Suri will be an Independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh and the party would support his candidature. Mr Suri, who was originally announced as a BJP candidate from Orissa, was shifted to Uttar Pradesh.