New-Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that the election for 12 vacant seats in the Rajya Sabha will take place on September 3.
The notification for the Rajya Sabha elections will be issued on August 14 and the last date for filing of poll papers is August 21, the Commission said.
According to the announcement by the ECI, the seperate elections for each Rajya Sabha seat will be held on September 3 and the results will be announced on the same day.
The seats fell vacant as the ten sitting members including Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal and Jyotiraditya Scindia, were elected to the Lok Sabha and two others MP Dr K-Keshav Rao from Telangana resigned on July 5 and BJD’s MP Mamata Mohanta from Odisha resigned on July 31 from their respective seats and joined BJP.
The ECI said that for the purpose of marking the preference/s on the ballot paper, only “integrated violet colour sketch-pen(s) of pre-fixed specifications” shall be used.
The instrument shall be provided by the concerned Returning Officer and the ECI has strictly forbidden the use of any other pen for the elections.
The ECI has said that it will take adequate measures for close monitoring of the election process by appointing observers, to ensure free and fair polling, besides guidelines for Covid-19, etc.