{"id":2952,"date":"2026-02-18T07:02:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=2952"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:02:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:02:01","slug":"128495868-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=2952","title":{"rendered":"ECI announces Rajya Sabha biennial elections for 37 seats across 10 states | India News &#8211; The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"MwN2O\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"T22zO\">\n<section class=\"D3Wk1  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  VtlfQ\" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"D3Wk1\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"zPaFh\">\n<div class=\"wJnIp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-128495988,imgsize-1446708,width-400,resizemode-4\/rajya-sabha-biennial-elections.jpg\" alt=\"ECI announces Rajya Sabha biennial elections for 37 seats across 10 states\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/election-commission-of-india\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Election Commission of India<\/a> (ECI) on Wednesday announced that biennial elections to fill 37 Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant across 10 states in April will be held on March 16, with counting scheduled for later the same day.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>Polling will take place between 9am and 4pm, and vote counting will begin at 5pm, the Commission said. The vacancies arise as the terms of 37 members of the Upper House end in April 2026.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>According to the schedule released by the poll panel, the notification for the elections will be issued on February 26. March 5 has been set as the last date for filing nominations, followed by scrutiny on March 6. Candidates may withdraw their nominations until March 9.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>10 states to send new representatives<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>The biennial polls cover Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Bihar, where one or more members are completing their tenure.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>Prominent MPs retiring this cycle include Upendra Kushwaha, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Tiruchi Siva, Saket Gokhale, Ramdas Athawale, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sharad Pawar, Bhagwat Karad, Mamata Mohanta, Rameswar Teli, Indu Bala Goswami, K.T.S. Tulsi, N.R. Elango, Amarendra Dhari Singh, and Kiran Choudhry.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Guidelines and conduct<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>To ensure transparency, the Commission will deploy observers in each state to oversee the election process. It also directed that only integrated violet sketch pens supplied by the respective Returning Officers be used for marking preferences on ballot papers, stressing that no other writing instrument is permitted.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>Reiterating its commitment to a fair and impartial process, the ECI said the biennial elections would be completed within the prescribed constitutional timeline to uphold the integrity of the Rajya Sabha electoral process.<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/eci-announces-rajya-sabha-biennial-elections-for-37-seats-across-10-states\/articleshow\/128495868.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday announced that biennial elections to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8386,8385,724,1107,723,719,720,721,8387,8384,722],"class_list":["post-2952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-37-rajya-sabha-seats","tag-biennial-elections","tag-breaking-news","tag-election-commission-of-india","tag-google-news","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-march-16-elections","tag-rajya-sabha-elections-2024","tag-today-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}