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The people’s newsroom

PolicyParliament

Election Commission sets 12 November bypoll for Murugan's Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh

The seat fell vacant when L Murugan quit the Union ministry and the Upper House on 14 October to return to Tamil Nadu politics.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
Parliament House, New Delhi (file photo)
Parliament House, New Delhi (file photo)Photo: Akshatha Inamdar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. Polling for the Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha seat will be held on 12 November.
  2. Nominations open with the notification on 26 October and close on 2 November.
  3. The winner will serve the rest of Murugan's term, which runs to 2 April 2030.

The Election Commission on Thursday announced a bypoll on 12 November to fill the Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh left vacant by L Murugan, who resigned from the Union Council of Ministers and the Upper House earlier this month.

The seat fell vacant on 14 October. Murugan’s term would have run until 2 April 2030, and whoever wins the bypoll will serve the remainder of it.

Under the schedule, the notification will be issued on 26 October. Nominations close on 2 November and will be scrutinised on 3 November, and candidates can withdraw until 5 November. If there is a contest, members of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly will vote on 12 November between 9 am and 4 pm, with counting from 5 pm the same day. The whole process must be completed by 16 November.

The Commission has said that ballots may be marked only with the violet sketch pens supplied by the Returning Officer, a rule meant to protect the secrecy and validity of the vote. Any other pen is not allowed. It has also appointed observers.

A seat for a national figure

Murugan, who held the Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs portfolios as a Minister of State, was in his second Rajya Sabha term, having been re-elected from Madhya Pradesh in April 2024. He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13 October to let him leave the ministry and the Upper House so that he could work full-time on building the BJP in Tamil Nadu, and President Droupadi Murmu accepted his resignation from the ministry soon after.

The BJP has not yet named its candidate. The party has in the past used Madhya Pradesh seats to bring national leaders and ministers from other states into the Rajya Sabha, and with its majority in the state assembly its nominee will start as the clear favourite. Whether the opposition Congress fields anyone will become clear after nominations close on 2 November.