Lucknow: Ending the week-long high drama over rejection of nomination papers of two Congress candidates, 11 non-Congress nominees, including industrialists Anil Ambani and Lalit Suri and film personality Jaya Bachchan, were today (June 26, 2004) elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.

Those who have been elected were Bhagwati Singh, Ram Narain Sahau, Nand Kishore Yadav and Akhtar Kamal, besides Jaya bachchan, Murali all (SP), Manohar Joshi and Arun Shourie (BJP), Mayawati and S C Misra (BSP), Anil Ambani and Lalit Suri (independents supported respectively by SP and BJP).

Returning Officer R P Pandey declared their election unopposed, a day after he stuck to his earlier decision and rejected the nomination papers of the two Congress candidates as "invalid".

The declaration was made today at the close of the withdrawal of nominations under a revised schedule fixed by the EC which had asked the RO to rescrutinise the papers of the Congress candidates. The Congress had alleged "foul play" and made an appeal for rescrutiny after the returning officer rejected nomination papers of two of its candidates.

On the directives of the EC, the returning officer had heard the complaints of the congress nominees for two days and declared the results after the deadline for withdrawal of names expired at 15:00 hrs today.