New Delhi,
Rajya Sabha Elections in 58 seats over 16 states will be held today to fill Vacant Seats after the retirement of 58 members of the Upper House early next month. Here is a look at some of the key points of the elections.
BJP has the majority in the Lower House while in the Upper House it only has 58 members.
BJP is confident of improving its tally of seats as it has a government in 11 of the 16 states counting Uttar Pradesh which will be electing the largest number Members of Parliament for Rajya Sabha 10.
In UP, BJP is confident of winning 8/10 seats. However, it Going after a ninth candidate – businessman Anil Kumar Agarwal.
For the leftover seats, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have fielded one candidate each Jaya Bachchan and Bhim Rao Ambedkar, respectively.
The present strength of RS is 245, of which 233 are elected and 12 are nominated and 126 seats are needed for the majority.
The 58 seats that are vacant from 16 states, Uttar Pradesh (10), Maharashtra (6), Bihar (6), Bengal (5), Madhya Pradesh (5), Gujarat (4), Karnataka (4), Andhra Pradesh (3), Telangana (3), Rajasthan (3), Odisha (3), Jharkhand (2), Chhattisgarh (1), Haryana (1), Himachal Pradesh (1) and
Uttarakhand (1).
33 candidates from 10 states have been unanimously elected While Voting will take place today for the remaining 25 seats for six states i.e. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
The voting for seats in Upper House is done by the elected representative of the state legislative assemblies. The results of the elections are expected to be declared in the evening soon after the conclusion of the counting process. The number of seats allocated to a state depends on the population of that state.
The votes are calculated based on a formula, which is known as proportional representation with a single transferable vote.
A single term last six years and every two years, one-third of the total seats in Rajya Sabha go to poll.
For example, in UP, a candidate will need the support of 37 MLAs in the 404-member assembly, to get elected.
