The Rajya Sabha elections, which were to be held in March, were deferred in view of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent countrywide lockdown
New Delhi, June 1:
Elections for 18 Rajya Sabha seats will be held on June 19, the Election Commission has said. The elections, which were to be held in March, were deferred in view of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent countrywide lockdown. Now as the lockdown is being progressively eased, the Commission has announced a date for the election. ‘
The list includes 4 seats each from Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two from Jharkhand and one each from the northeastern states of Meghalaya and Manipur. The voting will begin at 9 am on June 19.
The Chief Secretaries of the states have been asked to depute a senior officer to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections, the Commission has added.
In February, the Commission had announced elections to fill 55 seats across 17 states. In March, 37 candidates across 10 states were elected unopposed.
The election, to be held on Match 26, was however, deferred as the process would have involved huge gatherings that would have included polling officials, agents of political parties, support officials and MLAs.
The Commission said today that after taking all factors into consideration it has decided to hold elections on 18 seats.
Among the candidates will be Jyotiraditya Scindia, who changed camp from the Congress to the BJP earlier this year. The Congress’s KC Venugopal is contesting from Rajasthan.
