Election Commission of India announced polls to 13 Rajya Sabha seats in six states including Tripura on March 31. The other states are Assam, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Tripura and Nagaland.
Tenure of the incumbent Rajya Sabha members including Jharna Das Baidya will end on April 02.
The notification in this regard will be issued on March 14.
The last date for nomination will be March 22, the last date for withdrawal of the candidature will be March 24 Result will be declared on the polling day- that is March 31 itself.
The Commission said, out of the five seats to be filled from Punjab, three are to be filled by holding one election and other two through another election as these seats belong to two different biennial cycles.
Besides Jharna Das Baidya the other RS members whose term will end on April 2 are Ranee Narah and Ripun Bora from Assam, Anand Sharma from Himachal Pradesh, as well as A.K. Antony, M.V. Shreyams Kumar, and Soma Prasad K. of Kerala and K.G. Kenya of Nagaland.
The Commission has directed that for the purpose of marking preference(s) on the ballot paper, only integrated violet colour sketch pen(s) of pre-fixed specification, provided by the Returning Officer, shall be used. No other pen shall, under any circumstances, be used in the above said elections.
The poll panel has also directed the Chief Secretaries concerned to depute a senior officer from the state to ensure that the extant instructions regarding Covid-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections.
