Mumbai, Aug 7 (IANS): The Election Commission of India has announced bye-elections to fill up 12 Rajya Sabha seats from 9 states – including two from Maharashtra – on September 3, here on Wednesday.

The two seats in Maharashtra fell vacant after the incumbents – Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale, both from Bharatiya Janata Party – were elected to the Lok Sabha-2024.

A total of 10 vacancies came up in the House of Elders after the sitting MPs were elected to the Lower House, while two MPs from Odisha and Telangana resigned from their seats last month.

The notifications for the polls shall be issued on August 14, the last date for filing nominations is August 21, and the last date for withdrawals shall be August 26 (for Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Tripura) and August 27 (for Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar, Telangana and Odisha).

The polling will be conducted on September 3 from 9 am to 4 pm and the counting of votes shall be taken up from 5 pm, with the results expected the same day for all the 12 seats, said the ECI.

Besides Maharashtra’s 2 seats, the elections shall be held in Assam and Bihar (2 seats each), Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Tripura (1 seat each).

The ECI said that for the purpose of marking the preference/s on the ballot paper, only “integrated violet colour sketch-pen(s) of pre-fixed specifications” shall be used.

The instrument shall be provided by the concerned Returning Officer and the ECI has strictly forbidden the use of any other pen for the elections.

The ECI has said that it will take adequate measures for close monitoring of the election process by appointing observers, to ensure free and fair polling, besides guidelines for Covid-19, etc.