Mumbai, Jan 31 (IANS) Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Congress leader and former union minister Murli Deora and two industrialists were among seven candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra Friday.
The other candidates elected include Hussain Dalwai (Congress), industrialist Rajkumar Dhoot (Shiv Sena), leading criminal lawyer Majeed Memon (NCP), Republican Party of India chief Ramdas Athawale and Pune industrialist Sanjay Kakade (independent).
With Memon’s election, Maharashtra gets only its second Muslim representative in parliament after Congress’ Dalwai as no Muslim candidate was elected to the current Lok Sabha from the state.
It is the maiden foray in the upper house for Pawar, who had decided not to contest the Lok Sabha elections henceforth.
Kakade’s election was facilitated after the Shiv Sena decided against putting up a second nominee from its quota in the state while Athawale was the joint alliance nominee.
Besides the seven candidates elected unopposed from Maharashtra, another 30 have also been declared unopposed from across the country for the total 55 seats in the Rajya Sabha.
Elections to the remaining 18 seats will be held as per schedule Feb 7.
These include: Andhra Pradesh (6), West Bengal (5), Odisha (4) and Assam (3).