Biennial polls for 55 RS seats on Feb. 7

Biennial polls to 55 seats in the Rajya Sabha from 16 states are to be held on February 7. The Election Commission, while announcing the schedule on Monday, said that the notification would be issued for the elections on January 21. January 28 is the last date for filing the nominations for the vacancies that are all set to arise between April 2 and 12. Papers will be scrutinised the next day and January 31 would be the last day for withdrawal of candidatures. Maharashtra tops the list of states that go to the polls with seven Upper House seats to be followed closely by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with six vacancies each.
West Bengal and Bihar will have polls to five seats each and Orissa and Gujarat four each. Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are all set to elect three members each while Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand two each and Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya one each.