The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday announced bypolls for six vacant Rajya Sabha seats across States and the election for one seat from Puducherry on October 4.

The Rajya Sabha seat from Puducherry would be vacated with the retirement of MP N. Gokulakrishnan on October 6. The seats for which bypolls would be held include one seat from West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh each, as well as two seats from Tamil Nadu. The vacancies were caused by the resignation of Manas Ranjan Bhunia (West Bengal), Biswajit Daimary (Assam), K. P. Munusamy and R. Vaithilingam (Tamil Nadu) and Thaawarchand Gehlot (Madhya Pradesh). The Maharashtra seat fell vacant due to the death of MP Rajeev Satav on May 16 after contracting COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic.

The EC also announced the bypoll for one seat of the Bihar Legislative Council on October 4 that fell vacant due to the death of the member, Tanveer Akhtar, on May 9.