NEW DELHI, June 17: Most of the heavyweights are likely to sail through during tomorrow's biennial polls for 34 Rajya Sabha seats spread over eight states.Senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jaswant Singh, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Kanshi Ram, Rajya Sabha Deputy chairperson Najma Heptullah, noted constitutional expert LM Singhvi, media personalities Pritish Nandy and Arun Shourie, former Chief Justice of India Ranganath Mishra are among the aspirants for Upper House berths.Both Mahajan and Jaswant Singh are tipped for Ministerial berths in the Vajpayee Cabinet.A keen contest is on the cards for three of the 12 RS seats in Uttar Pradesh. The nine candidates who seem to be in a comfortable position include all the five candidates of the BJP, three of the Samajwadi Party (SP), and one of the BSP.A total of 14 candidates are in the fray. They include two of the BSP and one each from the Jantantrik BSP, the Loktantrik Congress, the Congress and anindependent.The five BJP candidates are TN Chaturvedi, Arun Shourie, BP Singhal, Sanghpriya Gautam and Dinanath Misra while the SP candidates include Ramashankar Kaushik, Munabbar Hassan and Ram Gopal Yadav, who has been renominated. Apart from Kanshi, Sudhir Goel from the BSP is also a candidate. Ruling BJP-supported Jantantrik BSP candidate DP Yadav is also in fray while Khan Gufran Zahidi of the Congress, Syed Akhtar Hassan Rizvi of the Loktantrik Congress and independent candidate Pradeep Bajaj are the other candidates in the race.Nominees of major political parties in Bihar are all set to enter the council of states while Maharashtra will see another trial of strength between the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance and the Congress-led Opposition amidst speculations of cross-voting.With the Janata Dal deciding to abstain, the election would be a show of strength between the ruling Congress, which has fielded three candidates, and the BJD-BJP alliance in Orissa.The Congress had fielded formerSupreme Court Chief Justice and former National Human Rights Commission chairman Ranganath Mishra, Indian National Trade Union Congress vice-President Ram Chandra Huntia and former Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University Manmath Nath Das.Fears of cross-voting has also dogged the BJD in Orissa even though the BJP has pledged support to BJD nominee Ananga Udaya Singhdeo. Of the seven RS seats in Bihar, the ruling RJD is contesting three and its allies the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) one each.Jaswant, Singhvi and former Union Minister Kamal Morarka are among six candidates vying for four Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan. Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) president GK Moopanar was among 13 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on June 10, the last date for withdrawal of nominations for the biennial polls.Besides Moopanar, who returns to Rajya Sabha after a year, five Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) nominees - S Viduthalai Virumbi, S Agniraj, S Sivasubramaniam, M Sankaralingam and MA Khader- were elected from Tamil Nadu. Mohinder Singh and Sukhdev Singh Libra, both Akali Dal, were elected unopposed from Punjab. The five elected uncontested from Madhya Pradesh are Balkavi Bairagi, Jhumuk Lal Bhedia and Mobel Rebello (all Congress), and O Rajgopal and Dilip Singh Judeo (both BJP).The Election Commission issued a notification to fill 48 vacancies in Rajya Sabha from nine states on May 30.Eleven Elders - five from Madhya Pradesh and six from Tamil Nadu - are retiring on June 29, three from Orissa on July 1, 12 from UP, six from Maharashtra, four from Rajasthan and two from Punjab on July 4, seven from Bihar on July 7 and two from Haryana on August 1.
