2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 22, 2026 10:29 AM IST
The Election Commission (EC) on Friday announced elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states on June 18, as well as by-elections to one seat each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The 24 seats are set to be vacated in June and July upon the completion of the term of the incumbents, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda from Karnataka.
The seats headed for polls include four in Andhra Pradesh, five in Gujarat, two in Jharkhand, three in Madhya Pradesh, one each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, and four in Karnataka.
As per the schedule, the nominations for the polls would be filed from June 1 to June 8. The polling would take place in the respective state assemblies from 9 am to 4pm on June 18, and counting of votes would start from 5 pm.
The same schedule was also announced for the two by-elections — one in Maharashtra and the other in Tamil Nadu. The seat in Maharashtra was vacated by the resignation of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP president Sunetra Ajit Pawar on May 6, after she won the by-poll for the Baramati Assembly seat in Maharashtra that was vacated upon the death of her husband, Ajit Pawar, in a plane crash in January. One seat in Tamil Nadu was vacated by the resignation of C. Ve. Shanmugam on May 7.
Elections for Rajya Sabha seats are held in the respective state Assemblies, with the MLAs comprising the electorate. As opposed to Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, where Electronic Voting Machines are used, the Rajya Sabha polls are held using ballot papers. MLAs are required to mark their preference on the ballot paper using “integrated violet colour sketch pens of pre-fixed specification”, the EC has stated.
