The polling to fill up seven vacancies in the Rajya Sabha will be held on October 4, the Election Commission announced on Thursday.
The EC will hold bye-elections to fill up six casual vacancies in the Rajya Sabha – one each from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal and two from Tamil Nadu. The vacancies include the ones created due to the death of the Congress’s Rajeev Satav in May as well as due to the resignation of Thaawarchand Gehlot, who resigned as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rajya Sabha after being appointed as the governor of Karnataka in July.
The vacancies in the Rajya Sabha seats for Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were created as Biswajit Daimary, Manas Bhunia, K P Munusamy and R Vaithilingam resigned after they were elected to the legislative assemblies in the respective states during recent elections.
The EC will also hold polling to elect a new Rajya Sabha member from Puducherry to succeed N Gokulakrishnan, who will retire on October 6 after completing his term.
The poll panel will issue notification for the election and the bye-elections to fill the Rajya Sabha vacancies on September 15. It set September 22 as the last date to file nomination and September 27 as the last date for withdrawal of nomination. The polling will take place on October 4 and results will be declared after counting of votes on the same day, the EC stated on Thursday.
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