The polls for four vacant Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to be held in January next year.
All four Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir are vacant since February 2021 as elections were delayed due to non-existence of the Legislative Assembly in the Union Territory.
However, with Assembly elections held in September-October and a new House in place, a notification for the Rajya Sabha seats may be issued soon.
In J&K Assembly, there are 88 MLAs with two vacancies arising with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah resigning from Budgam seat while retaining Ganderbal and death of BJP MLA from Nagrota Devender Singh Rana.
Officials said since some vacancies are arising in more States/UT, the election for four Rajya Sabha seats of Jammu and Kashmir is likely to be clubbed with them and is now expected to be held in the month of January.
The MLAs become eligible to cast votes soon after taking oath.
The NC-Congress alliance backed by five independent candidates can win three out of four Rajya Sabha seats while BJP can win one seat.
In 2019, PDP-BJP alliance with 54 seats (PDP 28 and BJP 26) had won three seats (two PDP and one BJP) while fourth seat had gone to Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir who was with the Congress.
There is a likelihood that National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, who didn’t contest either Lok Sabha or Assembly elections, can be fielded by the party on one of the seats for Rajya Sabha elections.