After a gap of four years, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the schedule for elections to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The ECI will issue the notification for the four Rajya Sabha seats on October 6. According to the notification, the last date for filing nominations is October 13. The scrutiny will be carried out the next day, and voting will take place on October 24 between 9 am and 4 pm, followed by counting on the same day.
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The ECI has issued a notification for the conduct of three separate elections to fill four vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir. According to the schedule, the first two seats will be decided through individual elections, while the remaining two will be decided in a combined poll.
The four Rajya Sabha seats have remained vacant in Jammu and Kashmir since 2021. These seats were held by PDP’s Mir Mohammad Fayaz and Nazir Ahmed Laway, Shamsher Singh of BJP, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, then a Congress leader.
Due to the delay in holding elections to the Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir, only six Lok Sabha members could take part in the election of the Vice-President of India.
Regional parties and Congress have been pressing for the ECI to hold elections for the Rajya Sabha vacancies in Jammu and Kashmir, since assembly elections were held in the Union territory.
Based on the power equation in the Assembly, the NC-led alliance with 53 seats in the 90-member House—currently 88, due to the death of a BJP MLA and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah vacating the Budgam assembly seat, the second seat he won apart from Ganderbal—is expected to bag at least three seats, with the BJP likely to secure one. However, the fourth seat is tipped to go to the BJP.
The elections could still spring surprises, as seven independent MLAs are not bound to display their marked ballots, leaving scope for cross-voting.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Mehraj Malik, who remains in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), is still entitled to vote. Under Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, only those in prison or police custody are barred from voting, not individuals under preventive detention.
