EC stays declaration of UP results

Ambika Soni, Satish Sharma, Shivraj Patil, Pramod Mahajan elected to Rajya Sabha

Union ministers Shivraj Patil, R Anbumani, the Congress' Ambika Soni, Satish Sharma, the BJP's Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Yashwant Sinha and former Rajya Sabha Deputy chairperson Najma Heptuallh were among those elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Monday while the fate of 11 candidates hung in balance as the Election Commission stayed declaration of results in Uttar Pradesh following a Congress petition challenging rejection of its two nominations there.

Other prominent leaders elected unopposed as deadline for withdrawal of nominations for elections to 65 seats spread over 13 states came to a close today included former Union Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, JMM's Stephen Marandi, newspaper baron and sitting member Vijay Darda (Congress).

The Election Commission stayed declaration of results for 11 seats in UP till tomorrow against expectations they were likely to be elected unopposed, following a Congress complaint against rejection of its two nominations.

The 11 candidates include Reliance group Vice-Chairman Anil Ambani, businessman Lalit Suri, Jaya Bachchan (Samajwadi Party), MM Joshi and Arun Shourie (both BJP) and BSP leader Mayawati.

Patil, Mahajan, Darda, NCP leader Tariq Anwar, Shetkari Sanghtana leader Sharad Joshi and Shiv Sena nominee and executive editor of the party mouth-piece "Saamna" Sanjay Raut were declared elected unopposed from Maharashtra.

Jaswant Singh, Heptullah, Congress' Santosh Bagrodiya, BJP's LK Chaturvedi and Gyan Prakash Pilania were declared elected to the Upper House from Rajasthan.

A Congress delegation from UP complained to the Election Commission about the "undemocratic and unconstitutional" rejection of nominations of its two candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls and demanded that the returning officer's decision be overturned so that elections could be held.

"Under pressure from the state government, the nominations of Congress candidates had been rejected. The returning officer has no authority to reject the nominations on clerical mistake," UPCC president Jagadambika Pal said after a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishna Murthy and the two Election Commissioners BB Tandon and N Gopalaswami. The Congress legislature party leader Pramod Tiwari said that it was for the first time that an returning officer suo motu rejected the nominations of a recognised political party.

"In a democracy, there should be election. We want elections. And for those who do not want elections, there might be some hidden reasons which they do not want to disclose and everyone knows the reasons," he said adding that this would have exposed BJP-SP link in the elections.