While Chavan, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, has been nominated from his home state Maharashtra along with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Reddy will be a candidate from Andhra Pradesh and Vasan from Tamil Nadu.

Vora will contest from Chhattisgarh, which he is representing in the Upper House even now. So will Keishing, who represents Manipur.

The other party candidates are Nandi Yellaiah (AP), Mukut Mithi (Arunachal), Bhubaneswar Kalita (Assam), R Prakash (Haryana) and R C Khuntia (Orissa).

Left nominees
The CPM decided to contest three seats from Bengal and Forward Bloc one and the lone remaining seat going to an apolitical independent candidate.

“We will support the independent nominee for the fifth seat in the March 26 elections to Rajya Sabha,” Left Front chairman and CPM Politburo member Biman Bose said.

According to Bose, the party has nominated veterans Prasanta Chatterjee (Kolkata) and Tarini Roy (Cooch Behar) for the second term, and central committee member and state CITU president Shyamal Chakraborty. The Trinamool Congress has already renominated its sitting RS member Dinesh Trivedi for the fifth seat, but needs the support of the Congress to sail through.

MDMK opts out
The MDMK in Tamil Nadu declined the offer of one seat by its ally, the AIADMK, from the Tamil Nadu Assembly.The party said it had decided not to contest. Of the six seats falling vacant, the DMK and the Congress are contesting two seats each and the AIADMK and the CPM one. It remains to be seen whether the AIADMK will contest one more seat.