EC announces Rajya Sabha polls for 24 seats on June 18

The Election Commission has announced polls for 24 Rajya Sabha seats on June 18, with elections to be held in 10 states across India.

The Election Commission on Friday announced polls for 24 Rajya Sabha seats on June 18 following retirement of incumbents, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Digvijay Singh.

In a statement, the EC said the elections for the Rajya Sabha seats will be held in 10 states where the incumbents are retiring on different dates beginning June 21 to July 19.

The Rajya Sabha elections will be held in four seats each in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, three seats each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two seats in Jharkhand and one seat each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

The last date for filing nominations is June 8.

Among those who are retiring from Rajya Sabha include Gowda, Congress president Kharge (both from Karnataka), union ministers Ravneet Singh (Rajasthan) and George Kurian (Madhya Pradesh, former chief minister Digvijay Singh, Congress leader Shaktisinhji Govil among others.

The EC also announced bypolls for one seat each for the council of states from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

In Maharashtra, the council seat has fallen vacant following resignation from the seat by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, who has since been elected to the state assembly.

Besides Ravneet Singh, the members whose tenure is ending in Rajasthan are Neeraj Dangi of Congress and Rajendra Gehlot of the BJP.

Rajasthan has a total of 10 Rajya Sabha seats. BJP and Congress currently have five members each.

Given the present strength of parties in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, the BJP is expected to win two of the three seats, while the Congress is likely to secure one seat.

The BJP has 118 MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress has 67 members. The BSP has two MLAs, Bharat Adivasi Party four, Rashtriya Lok Dal one and Independents eight.