Rajya Sabha polls: Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi, NCP's Fauzia Khan file nominations

Mumbai: Congress general secretary Rajiv Satav, Shiv Sena deputy leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, former NCP minister Fauzia Khan and BJP member Bhagwat Karad on Friday filed their nomination papers for the biennial Rajya Sabha polls from Maharashtra.

NCP president Sharad Pawar and Union minister Ramdas Athawale, both sitting Rajya Sabha members, and BJP leader Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendant of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, have already filed their papers for the March 26 polls.

Seven Rajya Sabha seats are falling vacant in Maharashtra on April 2.

A former Aurangabad mayor, Karad filed nomination on behalf of the BJP. He was accompanied by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrakant Patil and ex-state minister Pankaja



Munde.

Karad is the third BJP candidate to have filed nomination for the polls after Athawale and Bhosale, who submitted their papers on Thursday.

Athawale heads the RPI (Athawale), an ally of the BJP.

Friday is the last date for filing papers for the polls, where members of the Assembly will vote.

"We are happy that a true worker (Karad) has filed nomination. All our three candidates are good...

"Signs are there that the election will be held unopposed, we will know it soon," Munde told reporters outside the state legislature building complex, where Karad was also present.

Ruling alliance members Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP can comfortably win a seat each as a single candidate needs 37 votes to sail through.