The tenure of 55 members of 17 states in Rajya Sabha is going to end. Before that elections will be held on these seats on 26 March. The Election Commission has issued a notification in this regard. Maharashtra has 7, Tamil Nadu 6, Bihar and West Bengal have 5-5 seats. Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have 4-4 seats. There are 3 to 3 seats from Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. There are 2-2 seats from Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Jharkhand. Elections will also be held for one seat each in Meghalaya, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh.
Nominations for these elections will be held till March 13 and if necessary, voting will be held on March 26 from 9 am to 4 pm. After the ballot vote, the counting of votes will be done after 4 pm. In April this year, 51 seats of Rajya Sabha are being vacated. Apart from this, 5 seats will be vacant in June, one in July and 11 seats in November. Accordingly, elections will have to be held for 73 seats of Rajya Sabha this year, as the term of 69 members of Rajya Sabha will end by the end of the year. Those whose tenure ends this year include 18 BJP members and 17 Congress members. Apart from this, four seats are already lying vacant. In such a situation, elections will be held for 73 seats of the Upper House this year.
BJP away from majority
This year, 10 seats are getting vacant from UP alone. There is a BJP government in the state, so most of the seats will go to the BJP’s account. The Samajwadi Party will be the biggest loser here. The results of the recently held assembly elections will have a clear impact on the Rajya Sabha elections. The arithmetic of the state assemblies is going against the BJP this time. It is clear from the data that BJP will not be able to increase its number of members, due to which it will stay away from majority in Rajya Sabha. While the number of members of Congress and its allies will increase.
Significantly, in 2018 and 2019, BJP has suffered defeat in some states, which will directly affect the biennial election results of Rajya Sabha. On the other hand, the position of the Congress and its allies will improve in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. At present, BJP has 83 members in the Rajya Sabha and Congress 46 members. According to the equation, the BJP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha will remain around 83 and its hope of majority in the house will not be fulfilled at the moment.
