Rajya Sabha polls to be unopposed in Maharashtra

Veteran politician and NCP president Sharad Pawar and union minister Ramdas Athawale are among the seven candidates who are set to be elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.

On the last date of filing nominations on Friday, only seven remained in the fray.

The scrutiny would take place on 16 March while the last date of filing nominations is 18 March.

The two BJP candidates are Udayanraje Bhosale, the 13th descendent of legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from the Satara seat and Dr Bhagwat Karad, former mayor of Aurangabad.

Athawale, the president of RPI (Athawale), who is the minister of state for social justice in the Narendra Modi government, is contesting from the BJP quota.

Besides Pawar, the other NCP candidate is former minister Fauzia Khan.

The Congress has nominated Rajiv Satav, the AICC general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, who is a close aide of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The Shiv Sena has nominated Priyanka Chaturvedi, who last year left the Congress to join the saffron party.

The retiring members are Pawar and Majeed Memon of NCP, Congress' Husain Dalwai, Athawale, Shiv Sena's Rajkumar Dhoot, BJP's Amar Sable, BJP-backed Independent Sanjay Kakade.