Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India has announced by-polls for 12 vacant Rajya Sabha seats across 9 states on September 3. One of these seats is from Telangana, which fell vacant due to the resignation of BRS MP K Keshava Rao, who joined the Congress party.
The poll notification for the Telangana seat will be issued on August 14, with the last date for filing nominations being August 21. Given the Congress party’s majority in the Telangana Legislative Assembly, their candidate is expected to win the by-poll comfortably.
Keshava Rao’s original term was set to end on April 9, 2026, but he resigned on July 5 and joined the Congress party, necessitating the bypoll.
Ten Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant as the sitting members, including Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal and Jyotiraditya Scindia, were elected to the Lok Sabha.
Bypolls are also being held for two seats in Telangana and Odisha.
Besides Goyal, Sonowal and Scindia, the other Rajya Sabha members who won the parliamentary polls and moved to the Lok Sabha are Kamakhya Prasad Tasa (BJP), Misha Bharti (RJD), Vivek Thakur (BJP), Deepender Singh Hooda (Congress), Udayanraje Bhosle (BJP), K C Venugopal (Congress), MP Mamata Mohanta (BJD) and Biplab Kumar Deb (BJP).
The notification for the Rajya Sabha elections will be issued on August 14 and the last date for filing of poll papers is August 21, the commission said.
The separate elections for each Rajya Sabha seat will be held on September 3 and the results will be announced the same day.
