Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday filed his nomination papers for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka, with the Congress leadership putting up a show of unity as senior leaders, including Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, accompanied him during the process at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.Kharge, who is seeking election to the Upper House from Karnataka, reached the Assembly premises along with Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president BK Hariprasad.After filing his nomination, Kharge said the party leadership and legislators had collectively reposed faith in him and expressed confidence that the Congress would remain united in the elections scheduled for June 18. He said the party’s MLAs and leaders were working together to ensure victory for all Congress candidates.Meanwhile, sources said Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Mansoor Ali Khan will file nomination for Rajya Sabha in Bengaluru at 11.30 am on Saturday.The Congress on Thursday announced seven candidates for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections and bypolls across five states. Besides Kharge, the party fielded Pawan Khera and Mansoor Ali Khan from Karnataka, Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh, Praveen Chakravarty from Tamil Nadu and Pranav Jha from Jharkhand. The party has also renominated Neeraj Dangi from Rajasthan.The Election Commission had issued the notification on June 1 for biennial elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 10 states. These include four seats each in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, three seats each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two in Jharkhand, and one seat each in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya.The poll panel has also announced bypolls for one Rajya Sabha seat each in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. The nomination process is currently underway, with June 8 being the last date for filing papers.