Chandigarh: The by-election to the one vacant Rajya Sabha seat will be held on October 24, Election Commission announced on Wednesday.
The notification for seat will be issued on October 6 while the last date for filing nominations will be October 13 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 16. Votes will be counted after the polling on October 24, at 5 pm.
It may be recalled that the Rajya Sabha seat fell vacant on July 1, 2025, after the sitting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjeev Arora resigned after winning Ludhiana West assembly seat bypoll in June, this year. This bypoll was necessitated due to the demise of AAP MLA in January, this year. He died at his home of a gunshot after his licensed weapon accidentally went off.
Arora, a first-time MP, was elected to the Upper House from Punjab on April 10, 2022, and his six-year term was to end on April 9, 2028, was fielded by the party for the Ludhiana West by-election.
It may be recalled that speculations were rife that Arora’s resignation from the Upper House and coming to state politics will pave a way for AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s entry into Rajya Sabha, though the latter pointedly stated that he will not be going to Rajya Sabha.
For record, six of the total seven Rajya Sabha seats of Punjab have AAP leaders – Vikramjit Singh Sahni, Balbir Singh Seechewal, Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh and Ashok Mittal - while one seat is currently vacant.
