The term of Punjab’s Rajya Sabha members Ambika Soni from the Congress party and Balwinder Singh from Shiromani Akali Dal, is due to expire on their retirement on July 4. The notification to elect two members of the Rajya Sabha from these seats will be issued today, candidates can file nominations till May 31.
In order to qualify for being members of the Council of States, a candidate should be registered as an elector for any parliamentary constituency in India. The candidates should produce a certified copy of the relevant entry of the electoral roll in force. A candidate is also required to make and subscribe to an oath or affirmation in the prescribed form before the Returning Officer concerned or any other person so authorised by the Election Commission. The oath/affirmation will be taken or made by a candidate after his paper has been filed and before the date fixed for the scrutiny of nominations.
Dr S Karuna Raju, the Chief Electoral Officer, on Monday said the notification would be issued on May 24 and the last date for nominations would be May 31.
“The scrutiny of the nominations would be done on June 1 and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature was June 3. The polling would be held from 9 am to 4 pm on June 10 and the counting would be held on the same day at 5 pm. The election shall be completed before June 13,” he further added. Giving more information about the process, he said that the nomination papers were to be filed with the Secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh, who is the Returning Officer for the Rajya Sabha election from May 24 to 31. The papers are to be filed in Form 2C, which are available with the Secretary. Typed nomination papers would also be accepted provided that these are in the prescribed format.
In the recent assembly elections, the AAP won more than 90 seats, while the SAD-BSP alliance shrunk at just 4 and the Congress party at just 18. As per the number of MLAs, the Congress party may elect one Rajyasabha MP as the party has 18 MLAs in Punjab, while the Akali Dal would end up at zero this time as the number of Akali-BSP alliance MLAs stand at just 4. So, as per the number of MLAs, Congress may retain its one seat, while the AAP would be able to secure the another one.
