The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced that the Rajya Sabha (RS) polls for 10 vacant seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and one in the hill state of Uttarakhand would be held on November 9 and the results would be declared two days later.
The RS polls will coincide with the upcoming three-phase Bihar assembly elections, which will be held on October 28 and November 3 and 7, and by-elections for over 60 constituencies.
The results of the Bihar assembly polls will be declared on November 10.
The term of 11 RS members, including Union minister Hardeep Puri and Congress leaders PL Punia and Raj Babbar, is set to lapse on November 25.
Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Javed Ali Khan, Arun Singh, Neeraj Shekhar, Ravi Prakash Verma, Rajaram, Ramgopal Yadav and Veer Singh are the other retiring RS members.
The ECI has asked chief secretaries of poll-bound states to depute an official to ensure that all measures to contain the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) are taken during the upcoming elections such as compulsory use of masks and sanitisers and implementing social distancing norms. It has also directed the use of a violet colour sketch pen of certain specifications, which would be provided by returning officers.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) suits and ambulances were part of the ECI’s guidelines for conducting the elections to the 24 vacant RS seats across eight states in June.
Earlier, the RS polls for 24 vacant seats were slated to be held at the end of March.
Around 1,000 lawmakers from Andhra Pradesh (AP), Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Rajasthan had participated in the polling exercise in June.
The ECI has since conducted other RS elections, including two in UP and one in Karnataka, as well.
