Elections for 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states will be held on June 10, the Election Commission announced on Thursday. Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are among those who will retire between June 21 and August 1.
Among other senior leaders who are due to retire during this period are the Congress’ P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and Kapil Sibal, the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s TKS Elangovan.
The last date for filing nominations is May 31 and the last date to withdraw candidature is June 3, the Election Commission said on Thursday. Voting will take place from 9 am to 4 pm on June 10, and the votes will be counted at 5 pm on the same day.
Among the 57 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party holds 23, while the Congress has eight, according to NDTV. Last month, the BJP crossed the 100 seat-mark in the 245-member Rajya Sabha, becoming the first party to have done so since 1990.
The Election Commission also said that elections for four seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council will take place on June 13. The results will be declared on June 15.
Four members of the Legislative Council – the BJP’s Nirani Hanamant Rudrappa and Arun Shahapur, and the Janata Dal (Secular)‘s KT Srikantegowda and Basavaraj Shivalingappa Horatti – will retire on July 4.
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