Biennial polls for 13 Rajya Sabha seats to be held on March 31

New Delhi, March 7, 2022

The Election Comission of India (ECI) today said polling would be held on March 31 for 13 seats from six states in the Rajya Sabha.

The term of office of these 13 members of the Rajya Sabha is due to expire on their retirement in April 2022, an official press release said.

The members are Ranee Narah and Ripun Bora from Assam; Anand Sharma from Himachal Pradesh; A K Antony, MV Shreyams Kumar and Somaprasad K from Kerala; K G Kenye from Nagaland; Jharna Das (Baidya) from Tripura; Sukhdev Singh, Partap Singh Bajwa, Shwait Malik, Naresh Gujral and Shamsher Singh Dullo from Punjab are among the retiring members.

Out of the five seats to be filled from Punjab, three are to be filled by holding one election and the other two through another election as these seats belong to two different biennial cycles.

The term of office of the members to be elected to the Council of States from the State of Punjab shall be subject to the decision of the Supreme Court in SLP(C) No. 17123/2015 (Election Commission of India Vs Devesh Chandra Thakur & Others).

According to the schedule announced by the Commission, issuing of notifications will be on March 14 with the last date of making nominations on March 21. Scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on March 22. The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be March 24 with polling to be held on March 31 from 09:00 am- 04:00 pm. The counting of votes will be on March 31at 05:00 pm.

The Commission has directed that to mark preference(s) on the ballot paper only integrated violet colour sketch pen(s) of pre-fixed specification, provided by the Returning Officer, shall be used. No other pen shall, under any circumstances, be used.

Adequate measures for close monitoring of the election process by appointing observers shall be taken to ensure a free and fair election.

Broad Guidelines of COVID-19 as already issued by ECI as well as the recent guidelines issued by ECI as contained in para 6 of Press Note dated 28.09.2021 available at link Schedule for Bye-elections in Parliamentary/Assembly Constituencies of various States - reg - Press Releases 2021 - Election Commission of India (eci.gov.in) are to be followed, wherever applicable, during the entire election process for all persons.

Commission has also directed the Chief Secretaries concerned to depute a senior officer from the State to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections.

NNN