MUMBAI/PUNE: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Federal Minister for Heavy Industries Vilasrao Deshmukh and National General Secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Govindrao Adhik were on Monday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. The Shiv Sena candidate advocate Rahul Nerverkar who had filed his papers against Deshmukh and Adhik withdrew his nomination papers before the elections could be held.
Earlier Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, the NCP legislator in Maharashtra Legislative Council, who had also filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha seat last week, was also elected unopposed as no political party candidate has filed papers to contest against him. Monday was the last day for candidates to withdraw their papers for the three vacant seats to the Rajya Sabha from the state.
The three Rajya Sabha seats had fallen vacant after Congress party's Sushil Kumar Shinde the Federal Power Minister, NCP's Praful Patel the Federal Civil Aviation Minister and Supriya Sule the daughter of NCP supremo and Federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, had got elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently held elections.
The Shiv Sena had filed a petition in the Apex Court and challenged the special government notification relating to the elections to the three vacant Rajya Sabha seats and demanded a stay to the elections. The Apex court which heard the petition on Monday morning dismissed the petition and ordered the authorities to conduct the elections as per the election schedule announced by it. Accordingly the results of the elections were announced late Monday afternoon.
