Election to 3 RS seats from Delhi on Jan 16

With three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi retiring next month, the Election Commission (EC) on Friday announced polls to fill up the vacancies on January 16.

The EC also said that the bypoll to fill up the Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh vacated by Manohar Parrikar after taking charge as Goa Chief Minister will also be held on the same date. Parrikar’s term in the upper house was to end on November 25, 2020.

Rajya Sabha member from Sikkim Hishey Lachungpa (Sikim Democratic Front) is retiring on February 23 next. The poll to fill up his seat will also be held on January 16.

Delhi was allocated three seats in the Rajya Sabha and these are currently being held by Karan Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and Parvez Hashmi (all Congress). Their term is ending on January 27.

The EC said the three Delhi seats would be filled by holding three separate elections as each of these vacancies fell under three different cycles which were determined at the time of the initial constitution of the Rajya Sabha in 1952. It said that the Delhi High Court in 1994 dismissed a petition filed against holding separate elections for the three seats.

It said the Delhi seats will be filled “by holding three separate biennial elections to fill one seat each”. The notification to hold elections to fill up the five seats – three in Delhi and one each in UP and Sikkim – will be issued on December 29.

Voting and counting will be held on January 16, it said.