New Delhi: The Election Commission today (June10, 2004) issued a fresh notification resuming the process to fill 65 vacancies in Rajya Sabha from 15 States, elections for which would be held on June 28.

Under the notification, last date for filing nominations would be on June 17 and scrutiny the following day. The last date for withdrawal of nominations would be on June 21.

The Commission had announced the fresh schedule last night (June10, 2004) after the Supreme Court vacated its last week's stay with a rider that the polls would be subject to its final decision on the petition challenging open ballot system and doing away with the domicile status of the candidate.

Sixty Rajya Sabha seats have fallen vacant due to retirement of several members including deputy chairperson Najma Heptulla, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president M Venkaiah Naidu and Union Minister Oscar Fernandes.

The exercise includes three bypolls caused by death of K M Khan of Andhra Pradesh, Gurcharan Singh of Punjab and Abrar Ahmed of Rajasthan

Elections to five seats which fell vacant after they were elected to Lok Sabha or resigned would also be held.

The Upper House members who have been elected to the Lower House are Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Laloo Prasad Yadav of Bihar, Kailashchandra (Madhya Pradesh) and Pranab Mukherjee (West Bengal).

Manmohan Samal (Orissa) has resigned from the Upper House . The election would facilitate the entry of Union ministers Shivraj Patil, P M Sayeed and Oscar Fernandes to Rajya Sabha.

While Patil and Sayeed lost the Lok Sabha elections, Fernandes' Rajya Sabha term ended in April this year.