Forty-one candidates across party lines from 11 states were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Of all the winners 14 were from the BJP, four each from Congress and YSR Congress. While three each were elected from DMK and BJD, two each from AAP, RJD, TRS and AIADMK. One candidate each from JMM, JDU, SP and RLD were also elected to the upper house besides Independent Kapil Sibal.
P Chidambaram and Rajeev Shukla of the Congress, BJP's Sumitra Valmiki and Kavita Patidar, former Congress leader Kapil Sibal, RJD's Misa Bharti and Jayant Chaudhary of the RLD were also some of the names to be elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.
All the 11 candidates in Uttar Pradesh, six in Tamil Nadu, five in Bihar, four in Andhra Pradesh, three each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each in Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Telangana and Jharkhand and one candidate in Uttarakhand won without a contest.
Of all the candidates declared elected in Uttar Pradesh, eight are from BJP, one each from Samajwadi Party and RLD (Rashtriya Lok Dal), along with independent Sibal.
The winners from the state are Jayant Chaudhary (RLD), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Darshana Singh, Babu Ram Nishad, Mithilesh Kumar, Radha Mohan Dal Agarwal, K Laxman, Laxmikant Bajpai, Surendra Singh Nagar, Sangeeta Yadav (all BJP).
Elections to 57 seats spread across 15 states and Union territories of the upper house, falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates are slated to be held on June 10.
On June 10, elections will now be held for six seats in Maharashtra, four each in Rajasthan and Karnataka and two in Haryana. Results will be declared the same day.
(With PTI inputs)