The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that election for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Tripura will be held on March 31 next.
According to a press note issued by the ECI, the term of office of a total of 13 members of the Rajya Sabha elected from six states including Tripura will expire on their retirement in April 2022.
The 13 seats in Rajya Sabha include one from Tripura, two from Assam, one from Himachal Pradesh, three from Kerala, one from Nagaland and three from Punjab.
Jharna Das Baidya of CPM is the incumbent Rajya Sabha MP from Tripura and her term will expire in April.
According to the press note, election and counting of will be held on the same date – March 31 next.
Election notifications are to be issued on March 14 next while the last date of nomination filling is March 21 next. The scrutiny of the notifications will be conducted on March 22 and the last date of withdrawal of candidates is March 24 next.
Elections will be held between 9am to 4pm and election process should be completed before April 2, 2022.
The ECI press note also mentioned, “The Commission has directed that for the purpose of marking preference(s) on the ballot paper only integrated violet colour sketch pen(s) of pre-fixed specification, provided by the Returning Officer, shall be used. No other pen shall, under any circumstances, be used in the above said elections”.
“Adequate measures for close monitoring of the election process by appointing observers shall be taken to ensure free and fair election.
Further, the ECI asked to follow the broad guidelines of Covid-19 as already issued by ECI as well as the recent guidelines issued by ECI wherever applicable, during entire election process for all persons.
Besides, the Commission has also directed the Chief Secretaries concerned to depute a senior officer from the State to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections.
