Five elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Bihar

Five candidates -- three from the ruling Janata Dal-United and two from opposition BJP -- were Friday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar, an official said.

The five candidates are Ramnath Thakur, Harivansh and Kahkashan Perween of the JD-U and C.P. Thakur and R.K. Sinha of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"All five have been declared elected after the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers ended at 4 p.m. Friday. In the absence of other candidates, there will be no formal election," said an official.

The JD-U had last week announced it was not re-nominating its retiring MPs -- N.K. Singh, Shivanand Tiwari and Sabir Ali -- all of whom have been offered an opportunity to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

It had announced three new faces for the elections -- Thakur, the son of former chief minister Karpoori Thakur; Harivansh, the editor-in-chief of Hindi newspaper Prabhat Khabar; and Perween who is chairman of the state women's commission.

On the other hand, the BJP renominated Thakur, a former union minister, and fielded Sinha, who runs SIS (Security and Intelligence Services India Ltd.), one of the biggest private security agencies in the country.

According to his nomination papers, Sinha has assets worth Rs.564 crore and his wife's assets are Rs.230 crore.