Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 6 (ANI): After filing his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections, Congress leader Pawan Khera on Saturday said he was happy to be in the city and promised to keep engaging with the state.

Speaking to the reporters, Khera said, 'Happy to be in Bangalore. Very happy to be in this state, in this beautiful city, and we will keep talking.'

The Congress released its list of seven candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled to be held on June 18.

The party has also nominated Mansoor Ali Khan and Pawan Khera from Karnataka and Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh. Neeraj Dangi has been nominated from Rajasthan, while Praveen Chakravarty has been fielded from Tamil Nadu and Pranav Jha from Jharkhand.

A day earlier, All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Mallikarjun Kharge filed his nomination papers for the elections from Karnataka at the Vidhana Soudha complex here.

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.

The 24 seats include 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.

Meanwhile, the 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)