New Delhi: With one day left for filing of nominations for Rajya Sabha biennial polls, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti were among several candidates from different parties who on Monday submitted their papers.
Elections for 57 seats in the Upper House from 15 states are due to be held on June 11. The other prominent candidates who filed their papers included Union Ministers Birender Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and senior Congress leader Ambika Sonia.
Naidu, the Minister for Urban development and Parliamentary Affairs, BJP national vice president Om Prakash Mathur, Ramkumar Verma and Harsh Vardhan Singh were the four party candidates who submitted their papers from Rajasthan.
Vardhan is the grandson of former speaker of Rajasthan Assembly Laxman Singh and has links with erstwhile royal family of Dungarpur while Verma is a retired RBI official and engaged in social work. Jethmalani, a former BJP MP, and Misa Bharti filed their papers as candidates of ruling alliance in Bihar where JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav also entered the fray today.
Along with Yadav, Ramchandra Prasad Singh also entered the fray on JD(U) ticket. Jethmalani, who was the law minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, and Bharti filed their papers as RJD candidates.
“All the candidates of alliance will definitely win,” Lalu Prasad told reporters in Patna. In Chandigarh, Rural Development Minister Birender Singh filed his nomination papers from Haryana while Soni, a Congress General Secretary, did so from Punjab.
