The Election Commission on Tuesday said polling for 55 Rajya Sabha seats spread over 17 States set to be vacated in April would be held on March 26.
Announcing the schedule, the ECI said in a statement: “The term of office of 55 members of the Rajya Sabha elected from 17 States is due to expire on their retirement in April, 2020.”
According to the schedule, the notification would be issued on March 6, the last date of filing nominations would be March 13 and polling would be on March 26, from 9 am to 4 pm. The votes would be counted at 5 pm the same day.
On April 2, the terms of seven seats in Maharashtra, four in Odisha, six in Tamil Nadu and five in West Bengal would end. 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 and Manipur would become vacated. One seat in Meghalaya would be vacated on April 12.
Among the MPs whose terms would be ending are Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva, Rajya Sabha Deputy Speaker Harivansh Narayan Singh, Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Digvijaya Singh and BJP leader Vijay Goel.
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.
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.
(With inputs from PTI)
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