SHILLONG, MAY 29: Meghalaya will elect its Rajya Sabha member on June 18, with counting scheduled the same evening, Chief Electoral Officer BDR Tiwari announced today after briefing political parties on the biennial election process.
The poll is being held to fill the seat falling vacant on June 21.
“We had a meeting with the political parties with respect to the conduct of the biennial Rajya Sabha election in the state of Meghalaya, as the present tenure of the Rajya Sabha MP is due to end on June 21, so the election has to be held latest by June 20,” Tiwari told reporters.
Laying out the timeline set by the Election Commission of India, he said the notification will be issued on June 1.
“The last date for making nominations is June 8, scrutiny of nominations will be held on June 9 and the last date for withdrawal of candidates is June 11, 2026,” he said.
“The date of the poll is fixed on June 18 from 9 am to 4 pm. Counting of votes will be held on the same day from 5 pm onwards and the process will be completed before June 20, 2026,” Tiwari added.
Election officials inspected the polling venue at the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly today morning.
“We visited the venue along with officials from the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly and everything was found satisfactory as per the norms, schedule and layout provided by the Election Commission of India,” he said.
The CEO detailed the paperwork required from candidates.
“We briefed the entire process to the political parties regarding filing of nominations, including submission of Form 2C, affidavit in Form 26, security deposit, author affirmation, Form A and Form B in case of party candidates, including the provisions related to Forms C1 to C8,” he said.
He underlined the mandatory disclosure of criminal records.
“Special emphasis was laid on the provision relating to the publicity of criminal antecedents by the candidate and political parties in compliance with the direction of the Supreme Court and instructions issued by the Election Commission of India.”
Explaining the voting system, Tiwari said, “The system of election under proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote and the procedure for open ballot voting under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, have also been briefed to the political parties.”
He clarified the rules for showing ballots.
“Members belonging to a political party are required to show their marked ballot paper only to the authorised agent of their own political party and not to any other party agent on the day of poll. Independent MLAs are prohibited from showing their ballot paper to any agent.”
“We will brief them on the method of recording preferences, validity of ballot papers and the procedure for counting votes and ascertainment of the quota,” he added.
Tiwari said the meeting addressed all concerns.
“We had a good interaction and all queries related to the biennial Rajya Sabha election have already been briefed. Our preparations are complete and we are fully ready for the conduct of the biennial Rajya Sabha election in the state of Meghalaya.”
While notices were sent to all political parties, some could not attend.
“We tried to approach them even over the phone but due to preoccupation, they were not able to attend,” he said.