New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has announced by-elections for two vacant seats of Rajya Sabha, polling for which shall take place on 1st March. Two seats are vacant after demise of then sitting Rajya Sabha members Ahmed Patel and Abhay Bhardwaj. The Election Commission has decided to hold two separate bye-election which means ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is comfortably going to win both seats. As expected, polling date for Rajya Sabha by-polls has been fixed in tune of the State assembly session. So in case polling is required, the MLAs will be present in capital Gandhinagar. However polling will be required only if more than two candidates are in fray. As this is by-election, and not regular election, voting is going to be exercised separately for each of two seats, and therefore BJP is all set to win both seats. In such scenario, if opposition Congress stays away from fielding its candidate, BJP’s two candidates will be declared victorious unopposed and the verdict will be clear on February 18, the last date of filing nominations itself.

Election Commission of India’s release

There are two casual vacancies in the Council of States from Gujarat. The details of the vacancies are as follows: –

2.  The Commission has decided to hold two separate bye-elections to the Council of States from Gujarat to fill up the above mentioned vacancies as per the following common schedule: –

 Broad Guidelines to be followed during entire election process for all persons: –

• Every person shall wear face mask during every election related activity
• At the entry of hall/ room/ premises used for election purposes:
  • Thermal Scanning of all persons shall be carried out:
  • Sanitizer shall be made available at all locations
• Social distancing shall be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the State Govt. and Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Chief Secretary, Gujarat is being directed 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 said bye elections.

 Further, the Commission has also appointed the Chief Electoral Officer, Gujarat as Observer for the said elections.