New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS): The Election Commission on Tuesday announced that polling for 55 Rajya Sabha seats set to be vacated in April will be held on March 26.

According to the election schedule announced by the Election Commission, 55 Rajya Sabha seats are falling vacant from 17 states. Voting will be conducted between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 26 and the counting of votes will take place at 5 p.m. on the same day.

The seats going to polls include seven seats from Maharashtra, five from Bihar, four in Odisha, six in Tamil Nadu, five in West Bengal, four in Andhra Pradesh, two in Telangana, three in Assam, two in Chhattisgarh, four in Gujarat, two in Haryana, one in Himachal Pradesh, two in Jharkhand, three in Madhya Pradesh, one in Manipur, three in Rajasthan and one in Meghalaya.

According to the election schedule, the last date for filing nomination is March 13. While the scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on March 16. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 18.

The Rajya Sabha seats that have fallen vacant include Home Minister Amit Shah and late BJP leader Arun Jaitley's seats. After being elected the Lok Sabha MP, Shah resigned from the Rajya Sabha membership.

The Rajya Sabha MPs, whose tenure will end later this year, include BJP leader R.K.Sinha, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, JDU leader Kahkashan Parveen, Ram Nath Thakur, BJP MP Prabhat Jha among others.

The prominent leaders whose term will end in April are Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Ramdas Athawale, Delhi BJP leader Vijay Goel, Congress veteran leader Digvijay Singh and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

At present, in the upper house of the Parliament, BJP-led NDA and other allies is 106 BJP has only 82 membersthe strength of the BJP-led NDA and other allies have 106 MPs, including BJP's 82 members, well-short of the half-way mark in the 425-member Rajya Sabha.