The Election Commission has announced the schedule for the by-election to a vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu. The by-election will be held on September 13. The seat became vacant after the demise of AIADMK member A Mohammedjan due to a heart attack on March 23 this year. The term of the candidate will be up to July 24, 2025. With the AIADMK out of power in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the DMK having sufficient numerical strength, the MK Stalin led government is set to bag the seat.

“The Chief Secretary, Tamil Nadu is being directed to depute a senior officer from the State to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the said bye-election,” said an EC notification.

According to an Indian Express report, the DMK led ruling coalition may leave the seat for the Congress. CM MK Stalin has already given his assurance to the Congress, which is the junior ally in the DMK government.

Below is the schedule of the Tamil Nadu Rajya Sabha Bypoll:

Issue of Notifications: 24th August, 2021
Last date of making nominations: 31st August, 2021
Scrutiny of nominations: 1st September, 2021
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures: 3rd September, 2021
Date of Poll: 13th September, 2021
Voting Time: 09:00 am to 04:00 pm
Counting of Votes: 13th September, 2021, at 05:00pm

According to the report, the Congress is yet to decide whether it should field a leader from the state or go for party seniors like Ghulam Nabi Azad. Interim party president Sonia Gandhi is likely to take the final decision.

The Election Commission has said that broad guidelines related to COVID-19 which were issued before to be followed during the entire election process.

* Every person shall wear a face mask during every election-related activity
* At the entry of hall/ room/ premises used for election purposes:
–Thermal Scanning of all persons shall be carried out:
–Sanitizer shall be made available at all locations
* Social distancing shall be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the State Govt. and Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Election Commission has said that the poll process will be completed by September 15.