The election to 15 of the total seats of the Rajya Sabha is scheduled for February 27, Tuesday. A total of 41 seats have already been occupied by the Rajya Sabha candidates who were elected unopposed to the Upper House since no other nominees contested for these 41 seats. The returning officers declared these 41 leaders as winners on the final day for withdrawal of nominations.
Therefore, the remaining 15 Rajya Sabha seats will go for a biennial election tomorrow, and these seats are distributed among the states of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka.
Let's first understand how Rajya Sabha members are elected:
In the Rajya Sabha, Members of Parliament (MPs) are chosen by Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) using a method called the single transferable vote (STV). Each MLA gets one vote.
Instead of voting separately for each seat, MLAs list candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives enough first-choice votes, they are elected. The remaining votes are transferred to other candidates but with reduced value.
Therefore, the MLAs also vote for nominees from other parties. This situation is termed as 'cross-voting'.
In Uttar Pradesh, there will be a competition among 11 candidates for 10 seats in the Rajya Sabha. As per the sources, in UP there is a possibility of significant cross-voting or abstention during the election.
BJP nominated eight candidates instead of seven, stretching the competition. These eight nominees are - Union Minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, state party general secretary Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh, former Agra mayor Naveen Jain, and local industrialist and former SP leader Sanjay Seth.
Samajwadi Party (SP) has re-nominated three candidates - Jaya Bachchan, former MP Ramjilal Suman, and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan.
In order to secure a Rajya Sabha seat, a candidate needs to obtain 37 first-preference votes in Uttar Pradesh.
Number of BJP MLAs: 252 and 277 with NDA
Number of SP MLAs: 108, with the INDIA bloc's support it may turn to 110
Talking about Himachal Pradesh, BJP's Harsh Mahajan is standing against Congress's Abhishek Manu Singhvi battling for a single seat. With 65 members of the Himachal assembly, 2 can cross vote and 1 is likely to abstain, the sources say.
Number of BJP MLAs: 25
Number of Congress MLAs: 40
Meanwhile, in Karnataka, a total of five candidates are contesting for four seats with Congress, BJP, and JD(S) in the race.
Nominated members of Congress are Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and GC Chandrasekhar. BJP has placed Narayansa Bandage, and Kupendra Reddy is contesting from JD(S).
In the Karnataka Assembly, there are 224 members. To win, each of the five candidates requires 45 first-preference votes.
Number of BJP MLAs: 66
Number of Congress MLAs: 135
Number of JD (S) MLAs: 19
In Karnataka the saffron party might see cross voting by 2 MLAs, as per the sources.
How the UTs and States are allotted Rajya Sabha seats?
The Constitution's Fourth Schedule assigns Rajya Sabha seats to states and Union Territories based on their populations. Among the 245 members, the President appoints 12, while 233 represent States, Delhi, and Puducherry.
According to Article 80(4), members of state assemblies choose Rajya Sabha members through elections.
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