NEW DELHI (PTI): Major Indian opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Murli
Manohar Joshi, Upper House (Rajya Sabha) vice-chairman Najma Heptullah and opposition Janata Dal leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed were among the 22 candidates elected in Binneal polls to Rajya Sabha June 25 from three states while counting was suspended in Bihar following allegations of ballot snatching.
June 25 elections are part of the process to fill up 45 seats from eight states falling vacant in the house. Sixteen candidates including the Janata Dal chief, S.R. Bommai have already been declared elected unopposed to the house from Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab on June 18.
BJP’s tally in current round of Binneal elections has gone up to 15, that of ruling Congress (I) to 11. And J D to five. While the BJP got 11 seats in Thursday’s polls four of its candidates had earlier been declared elected unopposed.
Congress (I) won 7 seats with 4 of its candidates being declared elected unopposed earlier. The J D whose three candidates including the party chief, Bommai entered house without any opposition from its stronghold of Orissa, won two seats from up Thursday.
One seat in up went to JD(A) one in Rajasthan to a BJP?JD (Digvijay) backed independent and one to a Shiv Sena nominee in Maharashtra.
Among those declared elected unopposed on June 18 are five AIADMK and one Congress (i) candidates from south Indian state Tamil Nadu, four BJP members and a Congress( I) aspirant from central Indian state: Madhya Pradesh, and two Congress(I) MPs from north Indian state Punjab. It was a clean sweep of all three seats in eastern state Orissa by JD.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1992
