The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced the names of nine candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections and the list features party president Nitin Nabin and senior BJP leader from Bengal, Rahul Sinha. While the party has fielded Nitin Nabin and Shivesh Kumar from Bihar, Terash Gowalla and Jogen Mohan are set to enter the upper house from Assam, Laxmi Verma from Chhattisgarh, Sanjay Bhatia from Haryana, Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar from Odisha; and Rahul Sinha from West Bengal.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) declared the schedule for the biennial elections to the Council of States, Rajya Sabha, to fill 37 seats falling vacant from 10 states on February 18. 

According to the Commission, polling will be conducted on March 16 between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., and the counting of votes will take place the same day at 5:00 p.m.

The terms of 37 members of the Council of States, elected from 10 states, are set to conclude in April 2026. 

In view of the impending vacancies, the Commission has laid out a detailed timetable for the electoral process.

The notification for the elections was issued on February 26. The last date for filing nominations has been fixed as March 5, while scrutiny of nomination papers will be undertaken on March 6. 

To ensure that the elections are conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, observers will be deployed to oversee the entire process.

The members whose terms are ending represent Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana. 

The Commission stressed the need for strict compliance with all election-related guidelines and emphasised that the entire process would be completed within the prescribed timeline to safeguard the integrity of the Rajya Sabha elections.