Aam Aadmi Party set to enter Rajya Sabha; elections to 5 seats on January 16

The EC also said that the bypoll to fill up the Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh will also be held on the same date.

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) on Friday announced the Rajya Sabha polls to fill up five seats, including three in the national capital, will be held on January 16.

Three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi are retiring next month. 

The EC also said that the bypoll to fill up the Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh vacated by Manohar Parrikar after assuming charge as the Goa chief minister will also be held on the same date. Parrikar's term in the upper house was to end on November 25, 2020.

Rajya Sabha member from Sikkim Hishey Lachungpa (Sikim Democratic Front) is retiring on February 23 next. The poll to fill up his seat will also be held on January 16.

The National Capital Territory of Delhi was allocated three seats in the Rajya Sabha and these are currently being held by Karan Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and Parvez Hashmi (all Congress). Their term is ending on January 27.

The EC said the three Delhi seats would be filled by holding three separate elections as each of these vacancies fell under three different cycles which were determined at the time of the initial constitution of the Rajya Sabha in 1952.

It said that the Delhi High Court in 1994 dismissed a petition filed against holding separate elections for the three seats.

It said the Delhi seats will be filled "by holding three separate biennial elections to fill one seat each".

The notification to hold elections to fill up the five seats -- three in Delhi and one each in UP and Sikkim -- will be issued on December 29. The voting and counting will be held on January 16, it said.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is all set to contest the Rajya Sabha elections for the first time. However, the party leadership was divided over national convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s proposal to field prominent outsiders in the upcoming polls for Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of parliament.

“We are yet to take a final call on the proposal,” senior leader Gopal Rai had said last month.

While some leaders want the old members of the party to be rewarded, others back the Delhi chief minister’s view that politically non-aligned prominent public figures should be sent to Parliament.

(With PTI inputs)