EC Announces Oct 24 for Rajya Sabha Polls in Jammu and Kashmir
Biennial elections to fill four vacant Rajya Sabha seats from J&K will be held after formation of UT legislature.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced dates for biennial elections to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir, which have been lying vacant since 2021, and bypoll for one seat from Punjab. The polls will be held on October 24. The counting of votes will take place in the evening of October 24, an hour after polling concludes.
The Rajya Sabha bypoll is to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of AAP member from Punjab Sanjeev Arora. Though his Rajya Sabha term was to end on April 9, 2028, Arora had resigned following his election to the Punjab assembly. It is speculated that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal may make entry to Rajya Sabha against this seat.
The Rajya Sabha elections for the four Jammu and Kashmir seats are being held nearly a year after the assembly polls were held in the Union Territory. The union territory has been unrepresented in the Upper House of Parliament since February 15, 2021, the day when Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmed Laway finished their term. Two other members, Fayaz Ahmed Mir and Shamsheer Singh Manhas, had completed their term on February 10, the same year.
While announcing the schedule, the EC said that the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir (with legislature) and Ladakh (without legislature). According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, four sitting members of the Rajya Sabha representing the existing State of Jammu and Kashmir will be deemed to have been elected to fill the seats allocated to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
“All four seats were lying vacant since the expiration of the term of the sitting members due to the non-availability of the required electorate to conduct the elections at the time of occurrence of the vacancies. After the constitution of the State Legislative Assembly of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, there is a required electorate to conduct the Biennial Elections,” the ECI said. It added these four vacancies are being filled by holding three separate elections as each of these four vacancies fell under three different cycles.
The notification for the Rajya Sabha elections will be on October 6 and the last date of nomination is October 13.
