New Delhi, March 5 – Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving chief minister of Bihar, and BJP president Nitin Nabin are set to be elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed, along with NCP-SP supremo and veteran politician Sharad Pawar, who will return to the upper house after filing his nomination papers on Thursday.
These leaders were among the 40 candidates who filed their papers on the last day of nomination for 37 seats falling vacant in 10 states, leading to a keen contest for one seat each in Bihar, Odisha, and Haryana.
Seven seats are falling vacant in Maharashtra, six in Tamil Nadu, five each in Bihar and West Bengal, four in Odisha, three in Assam and two each in Haryana, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh, besides one seat in Himachal Pradesh.
The scrutiny of papers will take place on Friday, and nominations can be withdrawn until March 9. If needed, polling will be held on March 16.
Assembly elections are likely to be held in April in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Assam.
The BJP is poised to increase its representation in the Rajya Sabha, where it will have the maximum number of seats after this election.
Other prominent figures expected to return to the Rajya Sabha include Union ministers Ram Nath Thakur and Ramdas Athawale, along with former Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha M Thambidurai of the DMK, and noted lawyer Abhishek Singhvi of the Congress.
While Kumar and Nabin filed their nominations in Patna in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Pawar's papers were filed in Mumbai on his behalf by his daughter, Supriya Sule.
JD(U) chief Kumar's decision to contest the Rajya Sabha election, after expressing his desire to serve in the upper house, paved the way for a new government, with the BJP now appearing to be on track to have its "own chief minister" in the only Hindi-speaking state.
Bihar will also witness a keen contest for one seat, as sitting RJD MP Amarendra Dhari Singh, a businessman turned politician, has been renominated by the party, and he filed his papers accompanied by Tejashwi Yadav.
The RJD has 25 MLAs along with 10 others from the Mahagathbandhan, including Congress and Left parties, and hopes to compensate for the six-seat deficit with the support of AIMIM and BSP.
JD(U) chief Kumar and BJP state general secretary Shivesh Kumar, a former MLA who hopes to make his debut in Parliament, also filed their papers.
Odisha will also have a contest for one seat, as two candidates each from the ruling BJP – state unit president Manmohan Samal and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar, and from the opposition BJD – Santrupt Misra and prominent urologist Dr Datteswar Hota, filed their nominations, while Dilip Ray filed as an independent with BJP's support, raising the possibility of cross-voting.
Another keen contest is expected for one seat in Haryana, which has seen cross-voting in the past. Although the Congress has 37 MLAs, the opposition party needs only 31 first preference votes to win.
Satish Nandal, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 assembly polls as a BJP nominee, filed as an Independent, becoming the third entrant in the contest after BJP's Sanjay Bhatia and Karamvir Singh Boudh of the Congress.
In Maharashtra, six candidates from the ruling Mahayuti alliance, including Union minister Athawale and BJP leader Vinod Tawde, and opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi nominee Sharad Pawar, are set to be elected unopposed. They filed their nominations on the last day.
Pawar, 85, was not present at Vidhan Bhawan due to ill health. His daughter Sule filed the papers on his behalf.
Besides Athawale and Tawde, the BJP fielded Ramrao Wadkute and Maya Ivnate, a former mayor of Nagpur from a tribal background.
The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena fielded party spokesperson Jyoti Waghmare amid speculation that former Lok Sabha member Rahul Shewale might be nominated.
From the Nationalist Congress Party, former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's son Parth Pawar has filed his nomination.
In poll-bound West Bengal, the ruling TMC and the opposition BJP filed nominations for five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal, setting the stage for a largely predetermined election in the upper house.
Four candidates from the TMC – minister Babul Supriyo, former West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar, senior Supreme Court advocate Menaka Guruswamy, and actor Koel Mallick – submitted their nomination papers in the assembly.
The BJP fielded former state unit president Rahul Sinha as the lone contender.
With the TMC commanding an overwhelming majority in the 294-member assembly, the party is comfortably placed to win four of the five seats.
In Assam, three candidates from the ruling NDA – BJP's Jogen Mohan and Terash Gowala, along with UPPL's Pramod Boro – filed their nominations and are likely to be elected unopposed.
In Telangana, Congress candidates Abhishek Singhvi and Vem Narender Reddy filed their nominations. They are likely to be elected unopposed.
Singhvi has been renominated from Telangana after completing a term of one and a half years.
In Tamil Nadu, AIADMK sitting MP M Thambidurai and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss filed their nomination papers for the biennial election.
The PMK (Anbumani faction), which is part of the AIADMK-led alliance in the state, was allotted the seat by the AIADMK on March 4.
Ruling DMK candidates Tiruchi Siva and J Constantine Ravindran too filed their papers, besides Congress candidate M Christopher Tilak, and DMDK treasurer L K Sudeesh.
DMK's allies -- the Congress and Premalatha Vijayakanth-led DMDK, which joined the DMK's alliance recently, have been allotted a seat each by the Dravidian major.
In Chhattisgarh, BJP's Laxmi Verma and Congress candidate Phulo Devi Netam filed their nomination papers, both of whom will be elected unopposed.
In the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, the Congress picked an unlikely candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh – president of Kangra district Congress Anurag Sharma.
Former Union minister Anand Sharma and former state Congress president Pratibha Singh, along with other party stalwarts, were hopeful of getting a nomination to the upper house, but were denied a ticket by the party high command.
