RS polls for four vacant J&K seats to be held on October 24: ECI

Srinagar: The schedule for the biennial elections to fill the four vacant Rajya Sabha seats from the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory was published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday.

Voters will cast their ballots for these four open seats on October 24. The ECI says that on October 6, the poll notification for the four vacant Rajya Sabha seats will be released. “The last date for filing nominations is October 13. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on October 14. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 16.”

On October 24, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., voters will cast ballots for the four vacant RS seats. The votes will be counted at 5 p.m. the same day.

Following the end of the terms of PDP MPs Mir Mohammad Fayaz and Nazir Ahmed Laway, BJP MP Shamsher Singh, and former Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, the four RS seats from J&K became vacant in February 2021, TNIE reported.

Due to the lack of the Legislative Assembly in the Jammu and Kashmir UT, the four Rajya Sabha seats from J&K have been vacant since February 2021.

The 90-member J&K Assembly was elected last year following the abrogation of Article 370, the downgrading of the erstwhile J&K state, and its bifurcation into two Union Territories.

“Consequent upon the constitution of the State Legislative Assembly of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, there is now the required electorate to conduct the biennial elections to the Council of States from the UT of Jammu & Kashmir,” stated the ECI.

According to the ECI, the four vacancies in J&K are being filled by three separate elections in conformity with the law, as each of these four vacancies falls into three categories.

“In accordance with the law so laid down, the four seats, which had fallen vacant in the Rajya Sabha on 10-02-2021 and 15-02-2021 from the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, will be filled by holding three separate biennial elections to fill one, one, and two seats respectively, by issuing three separate notifications for one member retired on 10-02-2021, one on 10-02-2021, and two on 15-02-2021,” the ECI stated.

The ECI further stated that the terms of the members elected from Jammu and Kashmir will be contingent on the outcome of a lawsuit pending before the Supreme Court in Election Commission of India Vs Devesh Chandra Thakur and Others.

"Adequate measures for close monitoring of the election process by appointing observers shall be taken to ensure free and fair elections," according to the ECI.

Only five Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir, as well as one nominated member from the state, voted in the recent Vice Presidential election.