Hindustantimes, May 12, 2022
The Election Commission on Thursday announced June 10 as date of polling for 57 Rajya Sabha seats in 15 seats – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana. The term of office for these MPs expires between June 21 and August 1.
Some of the prominent names set to retire are Union ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, as well as senior Congress leaders Kapil Sibbal and P Chidambaram.
Naqvi, the minister for minority affairs, is an MP from Jharkhand, while commerce minister Goyal and former home minister Chidambaram represent Maharashtra.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman represents Karnataka.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut is also on the list, as is the Congress’ Jairam Ramesh. Raut also represents Maharashtra and Ramesh was nominated from Karnataka.
| Name of retiring members | Party | State | Term ends on |
| Suresh Prabhu | BJP | Andhra Pradesh | June 21 |
| T.G. Venkatesh | BJP | Andhra Pradesh | June 21 |
| Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary | BJP | Andhra Pradesh | June 21 |
| Venumbaka Vijaya Sai Reddy | YSRCP | Andhra Pradesh | June 21 |
| Lakshmikanta Rao Voditela | TRS | Telangana | June 21 |
| Srinivas Dharmapuri | Congress | Telangana | June 21 |
| Chhaya Verma | Congress | Chhattisgarh | June 29 |
| Ramvichar Netam | BJP | Chhattisgarh | June 29 |
| Vivek Tankha | Congress | Madhya Pradesh | June 29 |
| M J Akbar | BJP | Madhya Pradesh | June 29 |
| Sampatiya Uikey | BJP | Madhya Pradesh | June 29 |
| T.K.S. Elangovan | DMK | Tamil Nadu | June 29 |
| A. Navaneethakrishnan | AIADMK | Tamil Nadu | June 29 |
| R.S. Bharathi | DMK | Tamil Nadu | June 29 |
| S.R. Balasubramoniyan | AIADMK | Tamil Nadu | June 29 |
| A. Vijayakumar | AIADMK | Tamil Nadu | June 29 |
| K.R.N. Rajeshkumar | DMK | Tamil Nadu | June 29 |
| K.C. Ramamurthy | BJP | Karnataka | June 30 |
| Jairam Ramesh | Congress | Karnataka | June 30 |
| Oscar Fernandes (Vacant w.e.f 13.09.2021) | Congress | Karnataka | June 30 |
| Nirmala Sitharaman | BJP | Karnataka | June 30 |
| Nekkanti Bhaskar Rao | BJD | Odisha | July 1 |
| Prasanna Acharya | BJD | Odisha | July 1 |
| Sasmit Patra | BJD | Odisha | July 1 |
| Piyush Goyal | BJP | Maharashtra | July 4 |
| P. Chidambaram | Congress | Maharashtra | July 4 |
| Praful Patel | NCP | Maharashtra | July 4 |
| Vikas Mahatme | BJP | Maharashtra | July 4 |
| Sanjay Raut | Shiv Sena | Maharashtra | July 4 |
| Vinay Sahasrabuddhe | BJP | Maharashtra | July 4 |
| Ambika Soni | Congress | Punjab | July 4 |
| Balwinder Singh | SAD | Punjab | July 4 |
| Om Prakash Mathur | BJP | Rajasthan | July 4 |
| Alphons Kannanthanam | BJP | Rajasthan | July 4 |
| Ram Kumar Verma | BJP | Rajasthan | July 4 |
| Harshvardhan Singh Dungarpur | BJP | Rajasthan | July 4 |
| Revati Raman Singh | SP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Sukhram Singh | SP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Syed Zafar Islam | BJP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Vishambhar Prasad Nishad | SP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Kapil Sibbal | Congress | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Ashok Siddharth | BSP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Jai Prakash | BJP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Shiv Pratap | BJP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Satish Chandra Misra | BSP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Sanjay Seth | SP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Surendra Singh Nagar | BJP | Uttar Pradesh | July 4 |
| Pradeep Tamta | Congress | Uttarakhand | July 4 |
| Gopal Narayan Singh | BJP | Bihar | July 7 |
| Satish Chandra Dubey | BJP | Bihar | July 7 |
| Misa Bharti | RJD | Bihar | July 7 |
| Ramchandra Prasad Singh | JD(U) | Bihar | July 7 |
| Sharad Yadav (Vacant w.e.f 04.12.2017) | RJD | Bihar | July 7 |
| Mahesh Poddar | BJP | Jharkhand | July 7 |
| Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi | BJP | Jharkhand | July 7 |
| Dushyant Gautam | BJP | Haryana | August 1 |
| Subash Chandra | Independent | Haryana | August 1 |
Overall, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have the most number of vacant seats – 11, 6 and 6, respectively. Bihar has 5, with 4 open seats in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
There will be 3 vacant seats in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, 2 in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Haryana and Jharkhand, and one in Uttarakhand.
The EC statement said the date of issue of notification for the elections will be May 24 and the last date to file nominations will be May 31. Scrutiny of nominations will be on June 1 and the last date of withdrawal of candidatures will be June 3. Hours of polling on June 10 will be from 9 am till 4 pm and the counting of votes will be from 5 pm.
“Adequate measures for close monitoring of the election process by appointing observers shall be taken to ensure free and fair elections,” the EC said, adding that all Covid-19 norms would be followed during the entire polling process.
This news can also be viewed at: