From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Thursday declared the biennial elections of the Rajya Sabha on June 10 to fill the seats of members retiring from June 21 to August 1 in 15 states, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Those retiring include Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi former finance minister P Chidambaram, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, Congresh leaders Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Oscar Fernandes (vacant since 13.09.2021 since his death), Nationalist Congress Party general secretary Praful Patel, BJP vice-president OmOmprakash Mathur, former union minister Alphons Kannanthanam, BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra, Sharad Yadav (vacant wef 04.12.2017) and ZEE TV owner Subash Chandra.
Nominations start on May 24 and end on May 31 with scrutiny on June 1 and withdrawals up to June 3.
The highest 11 seats are falling vacant from Uttar Pradesh, 6 each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and 5 in Bihar.
Those retiring from Maharashtra are: BJP’s ideologue Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Piyush Goyal, P Chidambaram, Praful Patel, Vikas Mahatme, and Sanjay Raut.
Those retiring from Rajasthan are Om Prakash Mathur, K Alphons, Ramakant Verma and former Dungarpur king Harshvrdhan Singh. Those retiring from Punjab are Ambika Soni and Balwinde Singh. Pratap Tamta of Congress retires from Uttarakhand, Misha Bharti, daughter of former CM Lalu Prasada from Bihar, Naqvi and his BJP colleague Mahesh Poddar,d senior advocate Vivekkrishna Tankha of Congress from Madhya pradesh and former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu from Andhra Pradesh.
