Pondicherry, Sept 22: Ruling Congress nominee V Narayanaswamy was today declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from the lone seat in union territory of Pondicherry. Narayanaswamy, president of Pradesh Congress Committee, was handed over the certificate of election by returning officer M Sivaprakasam at the assembly secretariat here. Today was the last day for withdrawal of nominations.

The biennial election was notified as the term of present member C P Tirunavukarasu of DMK ends on Oct 6. This is the third time Narayanaswamy has been elected to the upper house of Parliament from Pondicherry.

He had been the member of Rajya Sabha for two consecutive terms in 1985-1991 and 1991-1997.
Narayanaswamy had lost to Tirunavukarasu in 1997 when the coalition of DMK-TMC-CPI was in power.

Narayanaswamy was the lone candidate in the fray after the nomination of an independent Dr K Padmarajan was rejected by the returning officer at the preliminary stage of verification when he filed the papers last week. Bureau Report