Rajya Sabha polls: Sharad Pawar, Murli Deora elected unopposed

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and senior Congress leader Murli Deora are among the seven candidates from Maharashtra that were today elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha in the biennial polls here.

The other candidates were: Majid Memon (NCP), Hussain Dalwai (Congress), Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), Sanjay Kakade (Independent) and RPI leader Ramdas Athavale.

BJP had given nomination to Athavale, whose party is an ally of BJP-led NDA from its quota instead of Javdekar.

The unopposed election was a foregone conclusion as only seven candidates were in the fray for the seven seats from the state and their papers were found valid in scrutiny.

The announcement was made after the time for withdrawl of nomination papers ended at 1500 hours today.

288 members of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly formed the electoral college for the poll but the tally of voters had come down by one due to the demise of Congress MLA Subhash Zanak recently.

The quota for winning candidates was 36.

The elections were necessitated as the expiry of term of sitting members Prakash Javdekar (BJP), Bharatkumar Raut and Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), Murli Deora and Hussain Dalwai (Congress), Y P Trivedi and Janardhan Waghmare (NCP) -- all from Maharashtra -- ends on April 2.

However, Dalwai, Dhoot and Deora were re-elected for another term.

After the time for withdrawl ended, Dalwai, Kakde and Memon reached the Vidhan Bhawan to collect their winning certificates.

The Shiv Sena, which has 45 MLAs could only get one candidate elected.