Rajni Patil of Cong to enter Rajya Sabha unopposed

Senior Congress leader Rajni Patil nominated for the ensuing by-election to Rajya Sabha (RS) scheduled will be elected unopposed as the two Opposition parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena (SS) have jointly decided not to put up a rival candidate.

In a meeting on Wednesday, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan held discussions with leaders from both the parties and requested them to allow the election go unopposed. The election was to fill the vacancy that cropped up due to the untimely death of the former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Soon after the discussions, Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai said: “Chief Minister Chavan had called up our executive president Uddhav Thackeray and requested him to allow the election of Ms Patil go unopposed”.

On Tuesday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi gave green signal to the 54-year-old Rajni Patil's name for the nomination to Rajya Sabha seat.