Bengaluru, June 2- The Election Commission on Monday issued notification for the biennial polls to seven vacant Legislative Council seats in Karnataka.

With the issuance of notification, the filing of nomination papers for 7 seats has begun and the last date for filing of nomination is June 8. Scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on June 9 and the deadline for withdrawal of papers is June 11.

The polling will be held on June 18 from 9 am to 4 pm, if necessary.

The seats are due to fall vacant on June 30 following the expiry of the term of sitting MLCs Govindaraju, Nasir Ahmed, Thippannappa and B.K. Hariprasad of Congress and MTB Nagaraj, Pratap Simha Nayak and Sunil Valyapure of BJP.

Though the filing of nomination papers has begun, the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP are yet to announce their candidates for Council seats.