Bypolls For Two Rajya Sabha Seats In UP, Kerala To Be Held On 24 August: Election Commission

The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday (30 July) declared bypolls for two Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala on 24 August as these were vacant due to recent deaths of two Members of Parliament.

The seats were left vacant due to the deaths of Beni Prasad Verma from Uttar Pradesh and M P Veerendra Kumar from Kerala on 27 March and 28 May, respectively. Verma’s term was upto 7 April, 2022 while Kumar’s tenure was upto 2 April, 2022.

Declaring the bypolls in the two seats, the EC said the notification for the elections will be issued on 6 August. The last date for filing nomination for the elections is 13 August. The scrutiny of nomination will be held on 14 August and the deadline for withdrawal of nomination is 17 August. Voting will take place between 9:00am and 4:00pm on 24 August and the counting of votes will be completed on 24 August at 5:00pm.

As per schedule, the EC has planned to complete the election process in both the states before 26 August. The commission has also directed the chief secretaries concerned to depute a senior officer from the state to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections.

Verma, a founding member of the Samajwadi Party and former Union minister who was considered close to party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, died 27 March at the age of 79. Verma was the telecom minister from 1996 to 1998 in then prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s cabinet and was the steel minister in the Congress-led UPA government.

Former union minister and managing director of Mathrubhumi M P Veerendra Kumar died at a private hospital in Kozhikode on 28 May. He was 84. He suffered a cardiac arrest. The Rajya Sabha member was the former state committee president of Janata Dal (S), Socialist Janata (Democratic) and Janata Dal (United). He was also the founder leader of Loktantrik Janata Dal.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)