Senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday filed his nomination papers for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu also filed his nomination for a Rajya Sabha seat from Andhra Pradesh as the TDP-BJP alliance candidate on Tuesday.
Accompanied by former state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, MPCC president Ashok Chavan, former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and other party leaders, Chidambaram filed the papers at the Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai.
His son Karti Chidambaram was also present when he filed his nomination before the returning officer.
Chidambaram, 70, did not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and his son Karti had unsuccessfully fought from his native Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu.
Besides, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane also filed his nomination papers here for a Rajya Sabha seat.
Today is the last day for filing the nominations for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha to be held on June 11.
In Maharashtra, six RS seats are up for grabs.
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y Satyanarayana Chowdary and former state minister T G Venkatesh also filed their nominations as TDP candidates for two Rajya Sabha seats.
Accompanied by Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapati Raju, BJP's AP unit chief K Haribabu, state Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and Health Minister K Srinivas, Prabhu came to the Assembly and submitted his nomination papers to the returning officer and Legislature Secretary (in charge) K Satyanarayana Rao.
The TDP candidates paid homage to party founder president and former Chief Minister N T Rama Rao and came to the Assembly in a rally in which general secretary Nara Lokesh, state ministers Palle Raghunatha Reddy, B Gopalakrishna Reddy and others took part.
They then submitted their nomination papers to the returning officer.
While Chowdary is seeking an election to the Upper House of Parliament for a second straight term, Venkatesh is going to make his maiden entry.
Both are industrialists-turned-politicians.
In all, four seats are to be filled from AP in the biennial election slated for June 11.
With its combined strength of 108 in the 176-member AP Assembly, the TDP-BJP combine can comfortably bag three seats while the Opposition YSRC can get one.
On the opposition's behalf, YSRC general secretary V Vijaysai Reddy has already filed his nomination.
The biennial elections to 57 seats in Rajya Sabha are necessitated as 55 members from 15 states are retiring between June and August.