The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday announced that bye-elections for twelve vacant seats of Rajya Sabha will be held on September 3, following mid-tenure resignation of the sitting members and all-but-one getting elected to the Lok Sabha in the just held general elections.

Seven of the 12 RS MPs who gave up their membership are from the BJP -- Piyush Goyal, Biplab Kumar Deb, Sarbananda Sonawal, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Vivek Thakur, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and Udayanraje Bhosale.

Former RS MP Mamata Mohanta, however, had quit from the BJD and joined the BJP to successfully contest the Lok Sabha polls from Odisha. A Kudumi tribal of Mayurbhanj, Mohanta wrote in her resignation letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman that, “I do hereby tender my resignation from the membership of Rajya Sabha, today, i.e. July 31, 2024. I have taken this decision consciously.”

KC Venugopal and Deepender Singh Hooda, both from the Congress, and RJD’s Misa Bharti too are now Lok Sabha members, while Dr K Keshav Rao, sent to the Rajya Sabha by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in 2020, resigned on July 5 to return to the Congress.

The elected candidates will serve as RS MPs only for tenures left. For example, Tasa’s term as MP from Assam was till June 14, 2025. So whoever gets elected will remain the MP till that time only.

Nomination last date

As per the notification issued by the ECI, the last date for nomination is August 21 and the scrutiny of nominations will be held the next day.

Of the 12 seats, two each vacant are from Assam, Maharashtra and Bihar and one each in Haryana, MP, Rajasthan, Tripura, Telangana and Odisha.

While the last date of withdrawal of candidatures for Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tripura is August 26, for the remaining four States of Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Telangana and Odisha is August 27, said the EC.

Related Topics