New Delhi, Sept. 25 -- Four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu & Kashmir, vacant since February 2021, will finally go to polls on October 24, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced Wednesday, adding that three separate elections (for one, one, and two seats) will be held as each vacancy technically falls under a different election cycle.

ECI also announced an election to fill a Rajya Sabha seat from Punjab that fell vacant in July.

The delay in holding the Jammu & Kashmir elections can be traced to multiple legal, administrative, and political factors that unfolded after the state's reorganisation in 2019. First, once the four members retired in February 2021, there was no functioning legislative assembly to act as the electoral col...