AMN / NEW DELHI

Biennial elections for the 55 Rajya Sabha seats from 17 states will be held on 26th March. Election Commission today announced that these seats were falling vacant in April this year due to retirement of Rajya Sabha members.

Notifications for the biennial elections will be issued on 6th March and 13th March is the last date of filing nominations. Scrutiny of nominations will be done on the 16th March and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is 18th March. Counting will be held in the evening of 26th March an hour after the conclusion of polls.

Prominent leaders who are retiring in April, are NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, Congress veteran Motilal Vora, Digvijay Singh of Congress and former Union Minister Vijay Goel. Maximum seven seats are falling vacant in the Maharashtra followed by six seats in Tamil Nadu.