Rajyasabha Elections to 59 seats on March 23

New Delhi Feb 24: The Election Commission on Friday has announced the schedule for elections of 59 seats of Rajya Sabha. The Elections would be held on March 23.The vacancies are caused because of the retirement of following members. The union ministers found retire include Union Ministers Arun Jaitley, Ravishankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Dharmendra Pradhan, J P Nadda, Thawarchand Gehlot, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala and Ramdas Athawale.

Other prominent retirees include Jaya Bachchan and Naresh Agarwal (both SP), K Chiranjeevi, Renuka Chowdhary, Rajeev Shukla, Abhishek Manu Singhvi (all Congress), senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav and controversial leader Vinay Katiyar.

States from where members are retiring are
#Uttar Pradesh (10)
#Andhra Pradesh (3)
# Odisha(3)
#Telangana (3)
#Rajasthan (3)
#Bihar (6)
#Maharashtra (6)
#West Bengal |(5)
#Madhya Pradesh (5)
#Karnataka (4)
#Gujarat (4)
#Jharkhand (2),
#Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand (1 each)

Poll nomination window opens on March 5, closes on March 12 .Last date for withdrawal of candidature March 15