Rajya Sabha Election for 56 seats in 15 states to be held on February 27

NEW DELHI:Biennial elections to fill 56 seats across 15 states in the Rajya Sabha will be held on February 27, the Election Commission said on Monday.

The notifications for polls will be issued on February 8 and nominations can be filed until February 15. Nominations will be scrutinised on February 16. Candidates can be withdrawn until February 20.

While 50 members retire on April 2, six do so on April 3, the Election Commission said. The states from where members are retiring are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Rajasthan.

The Rajya Sabha MPs whose term ends in April include nine Union ministers, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda (Himachal Pradesh) and former prime minister Manmohan Singh (Rajasthan).

The nine Union ministers whose Rajya Sabha term ends in April include minister of Railways, IT and Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw (Odisha), minister of micro, small and medium enterprises Narayan Rane (Maharashtra), education minister Dharmendra Pradhan (Madhya Pradesh), health minister Mansukh Mandaviya (Gujarat), environment minister Bhupender Yadav (Rajasthan), minister for animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries Parshottam Rupala (Gujarat), minister of state (MoS) for I&B, and animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries Dr L. Murugan (Madhya Pradesh), MoS for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Karnataka), and MoS for external affairs and parliamentary affairs V Muraleedharan (Maharashtra).

On April 2, ten Rajya Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Maharashtra and Bihar, five each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four each from Gujarat and Karnataka, three each from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and one each from Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will retire.

Besides Rane and Muraleedharan, Rajya Sabha MPs retiring from Maharashtra include former information and broadcasting, and environment, forest and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar, Shiv Sena (UT) MP Anil Desai, NCP’s Vandana Chavan and Congress’s Kumar Ketkar.

On April 3, 2024, three Upper House members each from Odisha and Rajasthan will retire. Sixty-eight Rajya Sabha members are set to retire in 2024. Polls were held on January 19 for three Rajya Sabha seats in Delhi and one seat in Sikkim.