The Election Commission announced polling schedule for 55 Rajya Sabha seats from 17 states which will be vacated in the month of April. As per EC, the Elections would be held on March 26 whereas the counting of votes will be done at 5 pm on the same day.
Announcing the schedule on Tuesday, Election Commission of India said “51 out of these 55 seats from 17 States are falling vacant on different dates in April due to the retirement of sitting members, while four other seats are already vacant due to resignation of members. The terms of the members who had resigned in the recent past were also ending in April.”
While the notification for these biennial elections will be issued on March 6, the last date of filing nominations is March 13. The polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on March 26 whereas the counting of votes will be done an hour after the conclusion of polls.
Terms of seven seats in Maharashtra, four in Odisha, six in Tamil Nadu and five in West Bengal would end on April 2. On April 9, five seats in Bihar, four seats in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat each, three each in Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two each in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Jharkhand, and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Manipur will be vacated. One seat in Meghalaya would be vacated on April 12.
Prominent leaders among the MPs those retiring are Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh (JD-U), Union Minister Ramdas Athawale (RPI-Athawale), Congress veteran Motilal Vora, former Union Ministers Vijay Goel (BJP), Kumari Selja (Congress), former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, Sharad Pawar (NCP-chief) and Tiruchi Siva (DMK),
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress are expected to win most of the seats in the elections but the two will also see their strength diminished marginally. Meanwhile, The Trinamool Congress and the YSR Congress Party are expected to make significant gains in the 245-member Upper House after the March 26 elections.
