Elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat, West Bengal, MP to be held on 8 August

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Friday announced that elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats in three states will be held on 8 August. The announcement comes as the terms of several prominent faces in the upper house, including Union minister Smriti Irani, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien, are ending on 18 August. [caption id=“attachment_3380540” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Rajya Sabha. PTI[/caption] While the terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and West Bengal are ending on 18 August, bypoll to the upper house seat from Madhya Pradesh will also be held following the demise of union environment minister Anil Dave (BJP) on 18 May. Dave’s Rajya Sabha term was to end on 29 June 2022. The biennial poll and the bypoll will take place on 8 August, an EC statement said. On 17 May, the election to nine seats from West Bengal and Gujarat were originally announced for 8 June. But on 22 May, the EC had postponed the poll saying it would clash with the 17 July presidential election and the electronic voting machine challenge on 3 June. Out of the 9 retiring members, four are from Trinamool Congress, two from the Congress, two from the BJP and one from the CPM. The retirement of Ahmed Patel (Cong), Dilipbhai Pandya (BJP) and Irani (BJP) — all from Gujarat — is due on 18 August. The tenure of members from West Bengal — Derek O’Brien (TMC), Debabrata Bandhopadhyay (TMC), Pradip Bhattacharya (Cong), Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Sukhenduhakhar Roy (TMC) and Dola Sen (TMC) ends on 18 August. Since the presidential poll is on 17 July and vice presidential election on 5 August, these members will be able to cast their ballot in the election as their retirement is due after that.