Parrikar, 9 others elected unopposed to RS

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav are and ten political leaders who were today elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Of the ten leaders, nine, including Parrikar, former Goa Chief Minister who was inducted into Union Cabinet last Sunday, were elected from UP while another from Uttarakhand.
SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, state minister Azam Khan's wife Tazeen Fatima, Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, Ravi Prakash Verma, Javed Ali Khan and Chandrapal Singh Yadav were also among those elected to the Upper House of Parliament from UP.

BSP's Raja Ram and Veer Singh and Congress party's P L Punia were also elected to Rajya Sabha.

As per the party's strength in UP Assembly, ruling SP won six seats, BSP two, and BJP and Congress one each.

Congress candidate Punia was supported by SP.

In Uttarakhand, Congress nominee Manorama Sharma Dobariyal was declared elected unopposed from the only vacant Rajya Sabha seat in the state.

The seat fell vacant after BJP MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari was elected to Lok Sabha.
Ruling Congress has 35 MLAs in the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly and also enjoys the support of seven-member PDF, whereas opposition BJP has 28 legislators.