Dr Mysi Patil 
In Karnataka, all four candidates fielded by the Congress and the BJP for the Rajya Sabha seats were elected unopposed on Thursday. The Congress nominees were AICC president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Khera; and AICC secretary, Mansoor Ali Khan. The BJP’s pick for the biennial election was Prof M Nagaraj.Polls for the four seats, which are elected by state MLAs, were scheduled for June 18. However, since there were no other contenders, the four candidates were declared as winners. Chief Minister DK Shivakumar congratulated the party’s winning candidates.
Elections for the seats were necessitated by the expiry of the terms of four Rajya Sabha MPs by June 25. Among those who retired are former prime minister and JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda and BJP MPs Iranna Kadadi and Narayana Koragappa. Kharge sought re-election to Parliament's upper house from Karnataka. Earlier,five candidates had filed nominations. However, officials said that during scrutiny, the nomination filed by an independent candidate was rejected. The last date for withdrawing candidature was Thursday. Since only four candidates remained in the fray, they were declared elected "unanimously", officials said.
(State Correspondent)
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