Independent candidate Santosh Bagrodia decided to remain in contest on the last date of withdrawal of names for four Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan and his presence put a tough challenge for Opposition BJP. In the contest for four Rajya Sabha seats, there are now five candidates, including Union minister Anand Sharma and
lawyer Ram Jethmalani in race. Congress nominee Narendra Budhania for the fifth seat, got elected as he was contesting on a seat declared vacant after the death of BJP MP Srikrishan Valmiki.
According to the Assembly, none of the five candidates turned up to withdraw from the race on Thursday on the last date of withdrawal. The outcome will be decided by non-Congress and non-BJP MLAs. The Congress has 102 MLAs in House of 200 MLAs while the Opposition BJP has 79 members on its side.
The BJP is also confident of getting support of lone Janata Dal (U) MLA Fateh Singh. The CPI(M) has three members in the House while the Lok Samajvadi Party and Samajvadi Party each has one member in the House. There are 13 Independent MLAs and all of them have sided with the ruling Congress.
In absence of a clear majority on either side, the fate will be decided by Independent and CMP MLAs.
The BJP experiencing a resentment in selection of Mr Jethmalani as its candidate. The local BJP leaders were not in favour of Mr Jethmalani. independent candidate Bagrodia has been campaigning here for the last few days and has contacted several MLAs.
The ruling Congress has a tacit under standing with Mr Bagrodia.
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11 RS members elected unopposed from UP
age correspondent
Lucknow
June 10: Capt. Satish Sharma of the Congress and Satish Chandra Misra of the BSP are among the 11 Rajya Sabha candidates form Uttar Pradesh who have been declared elected unopposed.
Those seven BSP candidates who have been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha include Satish Chandra Misra, Ambeth Rajan, Jugal Kishore, S.P. Singh Baghel, Rajpal Saini, Narendra Kashyap and Salem Ansari.
The two Samajwadi candidates elected to the Upper House include Mr Mohan Singh and Mr Rasheed Masood. Capt. Satish Sharma of the Congress and Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of the BJP are the other two candidates to be elected to the Upper House for a period of six years.