The Election Commission (EC) on Monday cancelled elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal, scheduled to be held on 8 June, apparently due to the overlapping of their schedule with those of the EC's upcoming "EVM challenge" as well as the run-up to the presidential poll.
The EC did not announce any new date for holding these Rajya Sabha elections. Officially, the Commission issued a brief statement to merely state that it has "decided to withdraw" its press note dated 16 May announcing the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha from Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal.
"The Commission will announce programme for holding biennial election to Council of States from Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal in due course," the EC's statement added while not giving any reason for scrapping them in the first place.
The elections were to be held to fill the vacancies arising out of retirement of 10
Rajya Sabha members during July-August 2017, among whom are included several prominent leaders from various political parties ~ including the CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury (from Bengal), the Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel (Gujarat), the Union minister Smriti Irani (Gujarat), and the Trinamul leader
Derek O'Brien (Bengal).
Of the 10 retiring members of the Upper House, four are from Trinamul, three from Congress, two from the BJP and one from the CPM.
The presidential election is slated for July while the EC's EVM challenge to political parties is to get underway from 3 June.