Rajya Sabha polls for 12 seats in UP, Uttarakhand and Bengal on October 16

The Election Commission on Tuesday said that the polls for 12 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be held on October 16.

Ten seats are in Uttar Pradesh. For nine of them, the elections have been necessitated as the terms of the sitting MPs will end on November 25. Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri is among the MPs whose term is ending.

One seat has been vacant since September 11 when Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dinesh Sharma resigned to become the lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

While eight of the 10 seats are held by the BJP, one each is with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Polls will be held for one seat in Uttarakhand, where the term of BJP MP Naresh Bansal will also conclude on November 25.

The bye-election in West Bengal will be held for the seat vacated by Trinamool Congress MP Koel Mallick, who resigned in July.

The votes will be counted on October 16 itself.

Based on the composition of the Assembly, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is expected to win eight of the 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party is expected to win the remaining two.

With no MLAs in the state, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is not expected...

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