The Election Commission announced on Monday that the biennial Rajya Sabha polls are slated for February 27, encompassing 56 seats, as the terms of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP President J P Nadda conclude in April. Noteworthy vacancies include seats held by nine Union ministers, namely Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
The initiation of the nomination process is scheduled for February 8, marked by the issuance of notifications. The retirements are divided, with 50 members set to retire on April 2 and six on April 3.
Among those retiring in April are BJD members Prashanta Nanda and Amar Patnaik (Odisha), BJP chief spokesperson Anil Baluni (Uttarakhand), Fisheries Minister Parshottam Rupala, and Congress members Naranbhai Rathwa and Amee Yagnik from Gujarat. Additionally, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, MSME Minister Narayan Rane, former Union minister Prakash Javadekar, Congress member Kumar Ketkar, NCP member Vandana Chavan, and Shiv Sena (UBT) member Anil Desai are retiring from Maharashtra.
Uttar Pradesh is poised to have the highest number of vacancies with 10 seats, followed by Maharashtra and Bihar with six each, and Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal with five each. The distribution continues across states, with varying seat counts from Odisha to Chhattisgarh.
On April 2, ten Rajya Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Maharashtra and Bihar, five each from Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four each from Gujarat and Karnataka, three each from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and one each from Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand will retire. On April 3, three Upper House members each from Odisha and Rajasthan will retire, bringing the total retiring members in 2024 to 68. Notably, polls for three Rajya Sabha seats in Delhi and one seat in Sikkim were conducted on January 19.