The Election Commission of India on Friday unveiled the schedule for the biennial Rajya Sabha elections to fill 24 seats that are set to fall vacant across 10 states following the retirement of sitting members in June and July 2026.
This comes amid a meeting which is currently underway at the Bihar Chief Minister's residence in Patna between Nitish Kumar, JD-U National Working President Sanjay Jha, and Bihar minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary.
The biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha to fill 37 seats from 10 states, including Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, and Telangana, among others will be held on March 16, with counting of votes scheduled to be held the same day.
As a quid pro quo, the Congress leader proposed to give the vacant seat in the Maharashtra Legislative Council to Uddhav Thackeray in return for the only winnable Rajya Sabha seat for the MVA in Maharashtra, sources said.
From Tamil Nadu, six seats in the upper house of Parliament would fall vacant in April, but none filed papers on the opening day.
The elections are a part of the routine biennial cycle of the 245-member Upper House, in which 72 members will retire between March and November, this year. Of the total strength, 233 members are elected by state legislators and 12 are nominated by the President.
The five MPs from Bihar whose Rajya Sabha tenure is about to expire are Harivansh and Ram Nath Thakur of the JD(U), RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, and RJD leaders Prem Chand Gupta and Amarendra Dhari Singh.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Sajad Lone challenged Omar Abdullah to prove that his party did not deny the Congress a winning Rajya Sabha seat on the BJP’s instructions.
Singhvi met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and other senior Congress leaders here ahead of filing of his nomination tomorrow.
Sukhu said that five-six Congress MLAs have been taken away by Haryana police and CRPF.
