Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 5 (ANI): Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday filed his nomination for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections. He is a Congress candidate to the Upper House from Karnataka.

Kharge was accompanied by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Lok Sabha MP KC Venugopal and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Comittee President BK Hariprasad.

Along with Kharge, Congress candidate Pawan Khera, and Mansoor Ali Khan also submitted their nomination papers to Karnataka Vidhana Soudha Assembly Secretary Vishalakshi.

Addressing reporters after filing his nomination, Kharge said, 'All the MLAs and my leaders have unanimously chosen me. The election is scheduled for June 18, and I am confident that everyone will remain united and ensure the victory of the Congress candidates.'

The Election Commission had on June 1 issued a notification for biennial elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats from ten states.

Notification was also issued for the Rajya Sabha bypoll for a seat each in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. Congress on Thursday declared seven candidates for the biennial elections and bypolls to the Rajya Sabha from five states.

Along with Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Khera and Mansoor Ali Khan, the party has fielded Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh, Praveen Chakravarty from Tamil Nadu and Pranav Jha from Jharkhand.

The party has renominated Neeraj Dangi from Rajasthan.

The 24 seats includes four seats each in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, three seats each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two seats in Jharkhand, and one seat each in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya. The filing of nominations has begun, and the last date is June 8.

Notification was also issued for the Rajya Sabha bypoll for a seat each in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha.

Menawhile BJP has released the list of 11 candidates for the upcoming Biennial and Bye-elections to the Rajya Sabha

The BJP has fielded Tai Tagak from Arunachal Pradesh; Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya from Gujarat; Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agrawal from Madhya Pradesh; A Sharda Devi from Manipur; and Alka Gurjar and Satish Poonia from Rajasthan.

For the Rajya Sabha by-election in Odisha, the party has nominated Debashish Samantaray as its candidate. (ANI)