The Election Commission on Friday announced elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states on June 18, along with bypolls to one seat each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The Rajya Sabha seats are falling vacant in June and July following the completion of the tenure of sitting members, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda from Karnataka.
Among the seats going to polls are four in Andhra Pradesh, five in Gujarat, two in Jharkhand, three in Madhya Pradesh, four in Karnataka, and one each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
According to the poll schedule, nominations can be filed between June 1 and June 8. Voting will be held in the respective state Assemblies from 9 am to 4 pm on June 18, while counting of votes will begin at 5 pm the same day.
The EC also announced the same timetable for by-elections to one Rajya Sabha seat each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The Maharashtra seat fell vacant after the resignation of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Sunetra Ajit Pawar on May 6. She stepped down after winning the Baramati Assembly bypoll, which was necessitated following the death of her husband, Ajit Pawar, in a plane crash in January. In Tamil Nadu, the vacancy arose after the resignation of C. Ve. Shanmugam on May 7.
Rajya Sabha elections are conducted through elected MLAs in the respective state Assemblies. Unlike Lok Sabha and Assembly polls that use Electronic Voting Machines, Rajya Sabha elections are held through ballot papers. The EC has said MLAs must mark their preferences using “integrated violet colour sketch pens of pre-fixed specification”.
