The biennial elections to fill 11 Rajya Sabha seats in two states, which will fall vacant with the retirement of incumbent lawmakers in November, will be held on November 9, the Election Commission of India said on Tuesday.

Ten of these Rajya Sabha seats are from Uttar Pradesh and one in Uttarakhand.

The poll notification will be issued on October 20, with October 27 as the last date for filing of nominations.

The voting will be held between 9 am and 4 pm, and counting of votes taken up at 5 pm on November 9. The Commission will complete the election process before November 11.

The Rajya Sabha members due to retire on November 25 are Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Javed Ali Khan, Arun Singh, Neeraj Shekhar, PL Punia, Hardeep Singh Puri, Ravi Prakash Verma, Rajaram, Ramgopal Yadav, Veer Singh, and Raj Babbar.

Raj Babbar is the Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand while others were elected from Uttar Pradesh.

The commission has directed that for the purpose of marking their preference on the ballot paper, only integrated violet-colour sketch pen of pre-fixed specification, provided by the Returning Officer, shall be used and no other pen.

The EC also directed the Chief Secretaries concerned to depute senior state officers to ensure that the extant instructions regarding Covid-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for the RS elections.

Every person involved in the process shall wear face mask during every election-related activity. Thermal scanning of all persons concerned shall be carried out at the entry to hall or room or premises used for election purposes and sanitisers made available at all locations.

Social distancing shall be maintained as per the Covid-19 guidelines of the states and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Further, the Commission has appointed Chief Electoral Officers concerned as Observers for the Rajya Sabha elections in their respective states.