Rajya Sabha elections to fill 55 seats on March 26, results on same date

Elections to fill the 55 Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in April will be held on March 26, 2020. Announcing the dates of the Rajya Sabha election, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday (February 25, 2020) announced that biennial elections will be held in 17 states following the retirement of the members.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was holding 16 seats, Congress 13, All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) four, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) four, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) three, Janata Dal (United) (JDU) three and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) two, One seat each was with Shiv Sena, Republican Party of India (Athawale), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bodoland People's Front and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). One member was without party affiliation while there were two independents.

According to the ECI, the issue of notifications for the biennial elections to the 55 Rajya Sabha seats will be on March 6, 2020 (Friday) while the last date of making nominations is March 13, 2020 (Friday). The scrutiny of nominations will be carried out on March 16, 2020 (Monday) and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is March 18, 2020 (Wednesday).

The date of voting is March 26, 2020 (Thursday) from 9 am to 4 pm and the counting of votes will start after the end of polling on the same date at 5 pm.

The results of the elections will be declared after the counting of votes is completed. The date before which election shall be completed is March 20, 2020 (Monday).

Below is the list of members retiring, states and parties:

S.No	State	Name	Party	Retirement Date
1	MAHARASHTRA	Husain Umar Dalwai	Congress	02.04.2020
2		Amar Shankar Sable	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
3		Rajkumar Nandlal Dhoot	Shiv Sena
4		Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar	Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
5		Abdul Majid Haji Ahmed Memon (Majid Memon)	Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
6		Ramdas Bandu Athawale	Republican Party of India (Athawale)
7		Sanjay Dattatraya Kakade	Independent
8	ODISHA	Anubhav Mohanty	Biju Janata Dal (BJD) (lying vacant)	02.04.2020
9		Narendra Kumar Swain	Biju Janata Dal (BJD)
10		Sarojini Hembram	Biju Janata Dal (BJD)
11		Ranjib Biswal	Congress
12	TAMIL NADU	Sasikala Pushpa	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)	02.04.2020
13		K Selvaraj	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)
14		Tiruchi Siva	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
15		S Muthukaruppan	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)
16		TK Rangarajan	Communist Party of India (Marxist)
17		Vijila Sathyananth	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)
18	WEST BENGAL	Ritabrata Banerjee	Member without Party Affiliation
19		Jogendranath Chowdhury	All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)
20		Dr Kanwar Deep Singh	All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)
21		Manish Gupta	All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)
22		Ahamed Hassan	All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)
23	ANDHRA PRADESH	Mohd. Ali Khan	Congress	09.04.2020
24		Tikkavarapu Subbarami Reddy	Congress
25		Thota Seetharama Lakshmi	Telugu Desam Party (TDP)
26		K Keshava Rao	Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)
27	TELANGANA	KVP Ramachandra Rao	Congress	09.04.2020
28		Garikapati Mohan Rao	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
29	ASSAM	Bhubaneswar Kalita	Congress (lying vacant after Kalita quit party)	09.04.2020
30		Dr Sanjay Sinh	Congress, lying vacant after Sinh quit party to join BJP)
31		Biswajit Daimary	Bodoland People's Front
32	BIHAR	Kahkashan Perween	Janata Dal (United) (JDU)	09.04.2020
33		Ravindra Kishore Sinha	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
34		Ram Nath Thakur	Janata Dal (United) (JDU)
35		Harivansh Narayan Singh	Janata Dal (United) (JDU)
36		Chandreshwar Prasad Thakur	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
37	CHHATTISGARH	Ranvijay Pratap Singh Judev	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	09.04.2020
38		Motilal Vora	Congress
39	GUJARAT	Chunibhai Kanjibhai Gohel	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	09.04.2020
40		Madhusudan Devram Mistry	Congress
41		Lalsinh Udesinh Vadodia	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
42		Shambhuprasad Baldevdasji Tundiya	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
43	HARYANA	Ram Kumar Kashyap	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	09.04.2020
44		Kumari Selja	Congress
45	HIMACHAL PRADESH	Viplove Thakur	Congress	09.04.2020
46	JHARKHAND	Parimal Nathwani	Independent	09.04.2020
47		Prem Chand Gupta	Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
48	MADHYA PRADESH	Digvijaya Singh	Congress	09.04.2020
49		Prabhat Jha	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
50		Satyanarayan Jatiya	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
51	MANIPUR	Kshetrimayum Bhabananda Singh	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	09.04.2020
52	RAJASTHAN	Narayan Lal Panchariya	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	09.04.2020
53		Ram Narian Dudi	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
54		Vijay Goel	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
55	MEGHALAYA	Wansuk Syiem	Congress	12.04.2020

"The commission has directed that for the purpose of marking preference(s) on the ballot paper only integrated violet colour sketch pen(s) of pre-fixed specification, provided by the Returning Officer, shall be used. No other pen shall, under any circumstances, be used in the above said elections. Adequate measures for close monitoring of the election process by appointing observers shall be taken to ensure free and fair election," the press release by ECI Secretary Pramod Kumar Sharma stated.