New Delhi: The biennial election to the two
Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand, which was countermanded
over allegations of use of money-power and horse-trading,
will now be held afresh on May 3, the Election Commission
announced on Tuesday.
The three-member Commission decided the fresh dates in
its meeting held today and a notification for the same would
be issued on April 16, starting the process for filing of
nominations.
The earlier notification of March 12 for holding biennial
election to fill the two vacancies from Jharkhand was
rescinded by President Pratibha Patil on March 31 following a
recommendation by the EC in the wake of allegations of use of
money power in the March 30 poll.
As per the fresh schedule, the nominations can now be
filed upto April 23 and scrutiny will be done the next day.
The EC has fixed April 26 as the last date for withdrawal
of nominations and polling would be held on May 3 between 9 am
to 4 pm and counting to be done the same day at 5 pm.
The term of office of two members of the Council of States
elected from Jharkhand was to expire on April 2 due to the
retirement of Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia and Mabel Rebello.
The EC has said that the election process has to be completed
by May 5.
The Election Commission has already written to the
government for a CBI probe into the events that led to
countermand of March 30 Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand.
The decision came after the Jharkhand High Court asked
the Commission to constitute a probe.
PTI
