The Election Commission today said elections would be held on March 26 to fill 13 vacancies that will be caused in the Rajya Sabha by the retirement of members in April, including Union Ministers A K Antony and Anand Sharma.

These include five seats in Punjab, three in Kerala, two in Assam and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura.

In Punjab, there were willbe two separate elections, one for three seats and another for two, because they belong to two different biennial cycles.

The notification for these elections will be issued on March 9 and the last date for filing of nominations will be March 16. Counting of votes will be taken up at 5.00 pm on March 26, the day of polling, and the results are expected the same day.

Apart from Mr Antony from Kerala and Mr Sharma from Himachal Pradesh, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports M S Gill's term will also end in April.

The others whose terms are ending in April are: Mr Silvius Condpan, Ms Syeda Anwara Taimur (Assam), Mr P V V Abdul Wahab, Mr A Vijaya Raghavan (Kerala), Mr Khekiho Zhimomi (Nagaland), Mr Matilal Sarkar (Tripura), Mr Ashwani Kumar, Mr Naresh Gujral, Mr Dharam Pal and Mr Varinder Singh (Punjab).

The Election Commission will also hold a bye-election to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh on the same day to fill up the vacancy caused by the death of former Union Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Janeshwar Mishra on January 22. In the normal course, his term of office would have expired on April 2, 2012.