The Election Commission of India on Friday issued a notification for a bypoll to a vacant Rajya Sabha seat in Bengal on August 9.

The bypoll to the Upper House was announced a day after the Trinamul Congress had demanded byelections to seven Assembly seats in the state.

The Rajya Sabha bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi following his exit from Trinamul in February. He joined the BJP in March. The term of the seat is until 2026. The byelection will be held on August 9 and nominations will open on July 22.

Trinamul has the numbers to elect its own member to the Upper House.

The six-month deadline for the EC to conduct the vacant RS seat will end on August 12.

In Bengal, one more RS seat is vacant following the resignation of Manas Bhunia. He quit the seat after being elected as a Trinamul MLA. The EC has time until November 6 to fill the vacancy.

In the wake of the second wave of Covid-19, the EC had deferred all polls in May.

Unlike the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, Rajya Sabha elections are indirect as only MLAs need to cast their votes. No campaigning or deployment of large numbers of polling personnel is required.

In May, the EC had indefinitely deferred a Rajya Sabha election in Kerala. Earlier this month, the Bengal government had told the EC that the situation was conducive to both the RS and the Assembly bypolls.

The EC hasn’t, however, announced any decision on the bypolls.