The by-elections to six vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar, Odisha and Gujarat will be held on July 5, the Election Commission said on Saturday.
Six senior leaders from the Rajya Sabha, including Amit Shah, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani have moved to the Lok Sabha with their recent election to the lower house, thus necessitating election for the said seats for the Upper house.
Irani's seat is the second from Gujarat apart from Amit Shah's which needs to be filled. Irani had defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
Of the six seats, two are from Gujarat, one from Bihar (Prasad) and three from Odisha- Achyutananda Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik (all from Biju Janta Dal). Congress had demanded that election to the two seats of RS from Gujarat be conducted on the same time as resignations of the two BJP leaders from the Upper House on different dates sought to create conditions that election to the two seats are conducted on different dates thereby giving an advantage to the ruling BJP there.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, at a press conference on June 13, said they came to know that there could be a bid to hold elections for the two seats separately. The party will approach the Election Commission EC with its demand of holding elections for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat together, he said. Singhvi pointed out that simultaneous voting can bring one of the two Rajya Sabha seats to Congress. He alluded without naming the party that election to the two seats on different dates could help BJP pocket both the seats.