West Bengal's three Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant recently after three senior Trinamool Congress leaders quit the upper house one after another. The Election Commission has now released a full calendar for the bypolls to these seats, spelling out every stage from nominations to the counting of votes.
The resignations that triggered the vacancies
Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, a senior Trinamool Congress leader, resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat on June 8, 2026. Two days later, on June 10, 2026, fellow party leader Sushmita Dev also stepped down. A third leader, Prakash Chik Baraik, followed suit the very next day, resigning on June 11, 2026. The three back to back resignations left three Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal vacant within just a few days of each other. What makes this notable is that the original terms attached to these seats still had years left to run, they were set to last until 2029 and 2030, which meant the seats could not simply be left empty and had to be filled through bypolls.
The full nomination to voting timeline
According to the Election Commission, the formal notification for these bypolls will be issued on July 7, 2026. Candidates will then have until July 14, 2026 to file their nominations. Scrutiny of the nomination papers will follow immediately, on July 15, 2026, to check whether every candidate meets the required eligibility conditions. Anyone wishing to withdraw from the contest has until July 17, 2026 to do so. Polling itself will take place on July 24, 2026, between 9 am and 4 pm. Counting will begin the same evening at 5 pm, meaning results for all three seats will be declared on July 24 itself. The entire exercise, from notification to result, will therefore be wrapped up in roughly three weeks.
A specific pen, and no exceptions
The Election Commission has also issued a specific instruction on how voters must mark their choice on the ballot paper. They will have to use only the integrated violet coloured sketch pen, made to a predetermined specification, that is handed to them by the returning officer. The Commission has made clear that under no circumstances will any other pen be permitted to be used in this bypoll. Such rules around voting instruments are meant to preserve the transparency of Rajya Sabha elections and rule out any possibility of tampering.
Why three seats mean three separate notifications
The notification issued by the Election Commission also clarifies an important procedural point. It states that every vacancy that arises for a bypoll to any house, including the Rajya Sabha, is treated as a distinct vacancy in its own right. That means a separate notification is issued and a separate election is technically conducted for each seat, even though the schedule and programme for multiple bypolls can be identical. That is exactly the case with West Bengal's three seats, all three will go through the same dates and the same process, but on paper, each one remains an independent election.
