PATNA: JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, noted Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani and RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti were among five candidates declared elected unopposed for Rajya Sabha from Bihar today.
Other two candidates who triumphed without a contest for the Upper House of Parliament included JD(U) nominee Ramchandra Prasad Singh and BJP nominee Gopal Narayan Singh.
Jethmalani, a former BJP MP and law minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was elected to Rajya Sabha from RJD. He is presently pleading RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's case in the multi-crore fodder scam in Ranchi.
With this, the tally of parties for the 16 Upper House seats from Bihar will be JD(U) 9, BJP 5 and RJD 2.
Except for Jethmalani all the four victorious Rajya Sabha candidates collected certificate from Bihar Legistive Assembly Secretary-cum-Returning Officer Ram Shrestha Rai.
Jethmalani's certificate was collected by Bhola Yadav, RJD MLA and a close confidante of Lalu Prasad, Rai told PTI.
Besides, all seven candidates- that included five of Grand Secular Alliance while two BJP nominees- were elected unopposed for Legislative Council polls.
Grand Alliance nominees who were for the Legislative Council included- Gulam Rasool Baliyavi, C P Sinha (JD-U), S M Qamar Alam, Ranvijay Singh (RJD) and Tanveer Akhtar (Congress). The two BJP nominees who were elected to the upper house included Arjun Sahni and Vinod Narayan Jha.
The results were declared today by Ram Shrestha Rai after the time for withdrawal of candidature came to an end today at 3 pm.
Biennial elections were held to fill five Rajya Sabha and seven Legislative Council seats. It had become evident on May 31, the last date for filing of nomination papers that they would win unopposed when only five candidates filed their papers against five vacancies in the upper House of Parliament.
The contest for Council polls, which seemed inevitable with RJD chief Lalu Prasad's announcement of giving its third candidate, also vanished on the last date of filing nomination i.e. May 31 when RJD did not give its third candidate, thus limiting the number of candidates to the number of vacancies in the upper house of the state.
All five Rajya Sabha MPs from Bihar - K C Tyagi, Pavan Kumar Varma, Gulam Rasool, Ramchandra Prasad Singh and Sharad Yadav - from JD(U) are set to retire in July.
Seven members of Legislative Council who will retire on July 21, 2016 included- Uday Kant Choudhary, Kiran Ghai Sinha, Rudal Rai, Vijay Kumar Verma and Harendra Pratap Pandey while two seats fell vacant due to resignation of Bhola Yadav and Manzar Alam.