Rajya Sabha polls for four Jammu and Kashmir seats to be held on October 24

New Delhi, Sep 24 – The Election Commission on Wednesday announced that biennial elections for four vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted on October 24. These seats have remained unrepresented since 2021, leaving the Union Territory without any presence in the Upper House of Parliament for more than three years.

As per agency report, a by-election for a Rajya Sabha seat from Punjab will also take place on the same date to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjeev Arora. He had resigned after being elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly, although his Rajya Sabha term was originally scheduled to run until April 9, 2028.

The four seats from Jammu and Kashmir fell vacant after the tenure of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmad Laway ended on February 15, 2021, and that of Fayaz Ahmad Mir and Shamsher Singh Manhas ended on February 10, 2021. The elections are being held nearly a year after the conduct of Assembly elections in the Union Territory.

Explaining the background, the Election Commission noted that following the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories—Jammu and Kashmir with a Legislative Assembly and Ladakh without one—the Rajya Sabha seats were allocated accordingly. However, the elections could not be conducted earlier as no electoral college was available at the time of the vacancies.

With the constitution of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, the electoral college required for Rajya Sabha polls is now in place, paving the way for elections. The counting of votes will be taken up an hour after the conclusion of polling on October 24.