NEW DELHI (PTI):Sixteen candidates— five of AIADMK, four each of Congress (I) and BJP and three of Janata Dal-were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on the last day of withdrawal Of nominations for biennial polls to the upper house,
The successful candidates include Janata Dal president S R. Bommai, Jayanthi Natarajan of Congress (I) and O. Rajagopal, BJP general secretary.
All the three JD candidates S.R-Bommai, Ila Panda and Narendra Pradhan were elected uncontested from the eastern state of Orissa.
Six candidates, five of them belonging to the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), were elected from the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. Theirs were the only nominations left in the field for the six vacancies from the state.
While Jayanthi Natarajan (Cong I) and G. Swaminath an (AIADMK) have been re-elected, the four new AIADMK members are S. Muthumani, V.Rajan Chellappa, Austin Samjoi and ‘N. Thanga raj Pandiyan,
Variner Kataria and Mohinder Singh Kalyan, both of Congress (1), were elected from Punjab. Five Congress (I) candidates have already been elected to the Rajya Sabha from the state.
Four BJP candidates Messrs O Rajagopal and Jagannath Singh, Narayan Prasad Gupta and Dilip Singh Judeo-and one Congress (I) candidate, Ajit Jogi, were elected from Central Madhya Pradesh.
BJP vice-president Sunder Singh Bhandari was among six candidates left in the fray for four Rajya Sabha seats in the north-western State of Rajasthan.
Four persons, including businessman Lalit Suri, withdrew their nominations while one nomination was found invalid.
In the Eastern Indian state of Bihar, 13 candidates are left in the fray for seven Rajya Sabha seats for June 25 polls.
Prominent among the contestants are former union ministers, LK. Gujral (JD), Subodh Kant Sahay (JMM) and Congress-l member S.S .Ahluwalia.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1992
