New Delhi, June 1 : Nominations for elections to 27 Rajya Sabha seats, including biennial and bye-elections, and to the State Legislative Councils in 3 states began on Monday, with the ECI issuing a formal notification, an official said.

In case of contested elections, the poll shall be held on June 18 from 8 AM to 4 PM, followed by the counting of votes at 5 PM, the Election Commission of India said in a statement.

â??The Commission has issued notifications regarding the election programme and has appointed Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers (for both biennial and bye elections). Details of the appointment have been published in the Gazette of India/State Gazettes today,â?? said the statement.

With this, nominations for all these elections began at 11AM on Monday. The last date for filing nominations is June 8 till 3 PM, the ECI said.

â??The scrutiny of nominations for each of these elections shall be taken up by the Returning Officers (ROs) concerned on June 9, 2026. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures is fixed on June 11,â?? said the statement.

The biennial elections for 24 Rajya Sabha seats will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Mizoram.

Rajya Sabha bye-elections will be held in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha for one seat each, said the ECI.

In Bihar, the biennial election for the State Legislative Council will be held for nine seats. In Karnataka, the biennial election for the State Legislative Council will be held for seven seats.

The lone bye-election for the State Legislative Council will be held in Bihar. The bye-election will be conducted for the seat vacated by former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after his election to the Rajya Sabha.

And biennial elections in Bihar will be held for nine seats whose members are set to complete their terms on June 28. The nine outgoing members include Dr Kumud Verma, Professor Ghulam Ghaus, Mohammad Farooq, Bhishma Sahani, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, Sanjay Prakash, Sameer Kumar Singh, Samrat Choudhary, and Sunil Kumar Singh.

Among these, the seats previously held by Samrat Choudhary and Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha are already vacant because both leaders were elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly.

/IANS