RAJYA SABHA POLLS ON JUNE 11

5 May 2010

EXCLUSIVE

RAJYA SABHA POLLS ON JUNE 11

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission is understood to have decided to hold the Rajya Sabha elections on June 11 to fill 57 seats from 14 states falling vacant in the Rajya Sabha in June and July, including those held by Union Ministers Ambika Soni and Jairam Ramesh and Congress General Secretaries B K Hariprasad, Mohsina Kidwai and Oscar Fernandes.

The Congress has to also decide a safe seat for Commerce Minister Anand Sharma whose term has already expired and he should be elected from some other state but for Himachal Pradesh which sent him to the Upper House last because of the Congress not having enough MLAs in the state to get him re-elected from there.

Those retiring, mostly on July 4, include Jaya Bachchan from UP, R K Dhawan from Bihar, M Venkaiah Naidu from Karnataka, Satish Chandra Misra of BSP from UP, Kaptan Singh Solanki from MP and Janardhan Reddy. Gireesh Sanghi, the newspaper magnate and Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh, is retiring in June.

The elections will be held in Maharashtra for six seats and those retiring include Rahul Bajaj, Sanjay Raut, Vijay Darda, Anwar Tariq (NCP), and Sharad Joshi. Four seats falling vacant in Rajasthan are those of former Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Najma Heptulla (BJP), Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi, Narendra Budana and Santosh Bagrodia.

The term of former Defence Minister George Fernandes, who was elected in a by-election from Bihar, is also expiring on July 7.

The state-wise elections will be held for 11 seats from Uttar Pradesh, six seats each from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, five seats from Bihar, four seats each from Karnataka and Rajasthan, three seats from Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, two seats each from Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana and one seat from Uttarakhand.

The schedule of elections was finalised a full Bench of the Election Commission on Tuesday and is likely to be announced on Thursday or Friday. The notification for the elections will be issued on May 25.

As per the schedule, June 1 is the last date for filing nominations, scrutiny the next day and withdrawals allowed up to June 4. Polling will be on June 11 from 9 am to 4 pm and counting the same day from 5 pm. Results will be also declared the same day, the commission sources said.

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