The Election Commission on Thursday announced the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats on June 11. The elections were necessitated as 55 members from 15 States are retiring between June and August. One seat each from Rajasthan and Karnataka vacated by Anand Sharma (Congress) and Vijay Mallya (Independent) respectively will also go for polls. The notification for the polls will be issued on May 24, the EC said.
Out of the total 57 seats, a majority of 14 each belong to BJP and Congress. While six members belong to BSP, five are from JD(U), three each from SP, BJD and AIADMK. Two members each belong to DMK, NCP and TDP, while one member belongs to Shiv Sena. Mallya who has already resigned before the Ethics Committee of the Upper House recommended his expulsion, was an Independent member.
Among the prominent members retiring are Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Birender Singh, Suresh Prabhu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, former Minister Jairam Ramesh, JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav and senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani. While a maximum of 11 members are retiring from Uttar Pradesh, six seats each will go for polls from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
From Bihar, five seats will go to polls, four each from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each are from Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. One seat from Uttarakhand will also go for poll, the EC said.