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Polls to two Rajya Sabha seats to be held on Aug 24, announces Election Commission
Nearly 1,000 legislators participated in the polling for Rajya Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Rajasthan.
The Election Commission on Thursday announced that by-elections to two Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala will be held on August 24. These seats fell vacant due to the demise of the members.
“The Commission has decided to hold by-elections to the Council of States from Uttar Pradesh and Kerala to fill up the vacancies,” the poll panel said.
The late Samajwadi Party MP, Beni Prasad Verma, and LDF-backed independent MP, MP Veerendra Kumar, formerly represented the states in the Upper House. The seats fell vacant in March and May, respectively.
“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,” the EC said.
PPE suits and ambulances were part of EC’s guidelines for conducting the elections to the 24 vacant Rajya Sabha seats across eight states in June, which was the first major voting exercise since the pandemic prompted sweeping measures in March to ensure social distancing to check its spread. The polls were earlier scheduled for March.
Nearly 1,000 legislators participated in the polling in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Rajasthan.
The MPs were sworn in earlier this month, with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 11 of the 24 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling alliance at present has 101 seats in the Upper House.
