Rajya Sabha seats from Haryana, Himachal to go to polls on March 16

Kiran Choudhry, Capt Abhimanyu, Kuldeep Bishnoi lead BJP race in Haryana, while Anand Sharma and Raj Babbar in contention from Congress.

The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday announced the poll schedule for biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha with polling for two seats from Haryana and one from Himachal Pradesh set to be held on March 16.

Elections to fill 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states will be held on March 16, the Election Commission announced on Wednesday. (X)

The elections are being held to fill vacancies arising from the retirement of two BJP MPs in Rajya Sabha from Haryana, Ram Chander Jangra and Kiran Choudhry, and BJP MP Indu Bala Goswami from Himachal Pradesh. The term of all three MPs ends on April 9.

Elections will be held for a total 37 seats from 10 states.

The notification for the elections will be issued on February 26, while the last date for filing nominations is March 5. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on March 6, and candidates can withdraw their names until March 9. Polling, if required, will be conducted between 9am and 4pm on March 16 and the counting of ballots will take place at 5pm the same day. The entire election process is to be completed by March 20.

With the poll schedule now being announced, political activity in the states is expected to intensify as parties will start consultations to pick their nominees.

As per the formula devised for the Rajya Sabha elections, 31 votes each are required for the two candidates to make it to the Upper House of Parliament from Haryana. Since Kiran Choudhry only got a truncated term of about a year and seven months as a Rajya Sabha member, she could well be in the reckoning as a BJP nominee.

Former state ministers, Capt Abhimanyu and OP Dhankhar, former Congress MP who switched sides to join the BJP, Kuldeep Bishnoi, and former Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia are learnt to be in contention.

From the Congress, former Union minister Anand Sharma, former state ministers Rao Dan Singh and Karan Dalal, former state Congress chief Udai Bhan and actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar, who lost from Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat in 2024, are in the contention.