Shillong: Meghalaya is set to elect its sole Rajya Sabha representative on June 18, with counting scheduled the same evening, chief electoral officer BDR Tiwari said after briefing political parties on the election process on Friday.The upper house parliamentary seat, currently held by Wanweiroy Kharlukhi of the ruling National People’s Party, will fall vacant on June 21 and therefore the election had to be held latest by June 20, the CEO briefed the media.As per the election schedule issued by the Election Commission of India, the notification will be issued on June 1. All 60 elected members of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly are eligible to vote in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.“The last date of making nomination is 8th June, scrutiny of nomination will be held on the 9th of June and last date for withdrawal of candidates is 11th June 2026,” he informed.“Date of poll is fixed on the 18th June from 9 am to 4 pm. Counting of votes will be on the same day from 5 pm onwards and the process is to be completed before 20th June,” Tiwari said.Election officials inspected the polling venue at the Meghalaya assembly at Rilbong, Shillong on Friday morning and found the arrangements satisfactory as per Election Commission of India norms, the CEO said.Emphasising the mandatory disclosure of criminal records by the contestants, he said, “Special emphasis was laid on the provision relating to the publicity of the criminal antecedents by the candidate and political parties in compliance with the direction of Supreme Court and instruction issued by ECI”.“We are fully ready for the conduct of the biennial election of Rajya Sabha in the state of Meghalaya,” the CEO reiterated.
