Polling will be held on 16 March to fill the seats that will fall vacant in early April. According to the Election Commission of India, the notification will be issued on 26 February, and nominations may be filed until 5 March. Voting will take place from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on 16 March, with counting scheduled to begin at 5:00 pm. Results are expected late in the evening.
Among the states, Maharashtra has the highest number of vacancies (7), followed by Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal (5 each), Odisha (4), Assam (3), Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Telangana (2 each), and Himachal Pradesh (1).
Rajya Sabha members completing their terms include Sharad Pawar, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Ramdas Athawale, Fauzia Khan and Rajni Patil from Maharashtra; M Thambidurai, Tiruchi Siva, Kanimozhi and G K Vasan from Tamil Nadu; Saket Gokhale, Mausam Noor and Ritabrata Banerjee from West Bengal; Rameshwar Teli and Bhubaneswar Kalita from Assam; and Premchand Gupta, Ramnath Thakur, Upendra Kushwaha and Harivansh Narayan Singh from Bihar.
From Chhattisgarh, Poet Tejpal Singh Tulsi, also known as senior advocate K T S Tulsi, and Phulo Devi Netam will retire. Kiran Chaudhary and Ramchandra Jangra from Haryana, senior advocate and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi from Telangana, and Indu Bala Goswami from Himachal Pradesh are also among those completing their terms.
In total, 73 Rajya Sabha seats — including that of nominated member and former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi — will fall vacant in 2026. Of these, 37 will be vacated in April, while the remaining 35 will fall vacant between June and November. Those retiring between June and November include Hardeep Singh Puri, Shakti Singh Gohil, Deepak Prakash, Mallikarjun Kharge, H D Deve Gowda, Digvijay Singh, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Ram Gopal Yadav, Dinesh Sharma and Brij Lal, among others.
If the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA performs as projected in the upcoming elections, it could cross the 140-mark in the Rajya Sabha, strengthening its position in the Upper House. This would ease the passage of key legislation. In 2026, the Indian National Congress will have no Rajya Sabha representation from Gujarat following the retirement of Shaktisinh Gohil in June. The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s presence will be confined to Kerala after the retirement of its lone West Bengal MP, Vikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, in April. The Congress will also have no representation in the Rajya Sabha from 17 states and Union Territories.
In Maharashtra, the weak numbers of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and recent alliance turbulence could affect the prospects of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), which risks losing its remaining representation in the Upper House as two of its MPs are retiring. At present, the NDA has over 130 members in the Rajya Sabha, while the I.N.D.I.A. bloc has around 80. Following the elections later this year, projections suggest the NDA could reach 145 seats.
