6 Rajya Sabha members elected unopposed from AP

Six candidates -- four from the Congress and one each from Communist Party of India and Telugu Desam Party -- were elected unopposed in the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh.

All the six nominees were declared elected unopposed by the Returning Officer and Legislature Secretary K Tuljanand Singh after the deadline for withdrawals ended at 3 pm on Monday. 

Of the four Congress candidates, Union Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao, senior leader from Uttar Pradesh Rashid Alvi were re-elected for the second term and Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Dr K Keshav Rao and Indian National Trade Union Congress president G Sanjiva Reddy were elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time.

Communist Party of India candidate S Aziz Pasha and Telugu Desam Party nominee Dr M V Mysoora Reddy were the other two members who were declared elected. Incidentally, the Congress had allotted one seat to its ally, the CPI, as per an understanding reached earlier. 

Basing on its present strength in the state Assembly -- which constitutes the electoral college for the election of Rajya Sabha members -- the TDP had fielded one candidate.

Dr Mysoora Reddy had unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Kadapa constituency against Congress rival Y S Vivekananda Reddy, younger brother of Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. A former Congress minister, Dr Mysoora Reddy had defected to the TDP on the eve of 2004 polls.

Keshav Rao, Sanjiva Reddy, Aziz Pasha and Mysoora Reddy collected the certificates of election from the returning officer.