With Maharashtra Elections Defeat, MVA Loses Big In Rajya Sabha Too

The Maharashtra election results have significantly weakened the Maha Vikas Aghadi. The poor performance of the alliance has also impacted their representation in the Rajya Sabha.

The Maharashtra Election results have come as a big shock for Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray. The result was "unexpected" for both Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi. However, NCP-SP winning just 10 seats and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena barely managing to scrape 20 seats is a big worrying sign for the parties. The repercussions of the Maharashtra Assembly Election will now be felt in the Rajya Sabha as well.

With the Maha Vikas Aghadi falling flat on its face in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the constituent parties' influence in the Rajya Sabha has also weaned. The Maha Vikas Aghadi is set to lose its representation in the Upper House.

How Are Rajya Sabha Members Elected?

The Rajya Sabha has 250 members. Of these, 238 MPs are elected by the state assemblies and 12 are nominated by the President. To become a Rajya Sabha member apne must be a citizen of India and aged above 30.

Members of the Rajya Sabha are elected through indirect election in a system of "proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote". This means each Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) votes for candidates based on their preferences. The voting is conducted through an open ballot, where each MLA can cast a vote only once.

This means every state will have a Rajya Sabha representation as per their population.

With 31 MPs, Uttar Pradesh has the most Rajya Sabha members. Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura have only 1 member each. Delhi and Puducherry are the only two Union Territories with representation in the Rajya Sabha as only these two have assemblies.

If a candidate does not secure enough votes to meet the required quota, those with fewer votes are eliminated, and their votes are redistributed according to the next preferences indicated by voters. This process continues until all seats are filled.

Every Rajya Sabha MP is elected for a tenure of six years and elections to one-third of the seats are held every two years,

Why Maharashtra Election Is MVA's Fall In Rajya Sabha: Numbers Game

As per the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution, Maharashtra is allotted a total of 19 seats. Hence, if each MLA votes, Congress will get 16 votes, Shiv Sena-UBT 20 votes, NCP-Sharad Pawar 10 votes, Samajwadi Party 2, and the CPI-M and Peasants And Workers Party of India 1 vote each. This will give the MVA a total of 50 votes.

On the other hand, the Mahayuti has 235 MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly now, giving it 235 votes in Rajya Sabha.

As per the Election Commission's Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, the number of votes required by a candidate to enter the Rajya Sabha is as follows:

Required vote = Total number of votes in the state assembly / (Number of Rajya Sabha seats allotted to the state + 1 ) + 1.

According to this formula, a candidate from Maharashtra will need 15 votes — [288 / (19+1) +1] (rounded off to the lower value).

Current Strength Of MVA In Rajya Sabha

Thus, only Congress has the strength to send 1 MP to Rajya Sabha. The MVA, as a coalition, can send a maximum of three members. As of now, the MVA has seven Rajya Sabha MPs — Imran Pratapgarhi, Chandrakant Handore, and Rajni Patel from the Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi and Sanjay Raut from Shiv Sena-UBT; Sharad Pawar and Fouzia Khan from NCP-SP.

Among them, the terms of Sharad Pawar, Fouzia Khan, Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Rajni Patel are ending in 2026. Imran Pratapgarhi and Sanjay Raut will retire in 2028. Only Chandrakant Handore will see the next Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra Assembly polls from the Rajya Sabha.

With a reduced strength, the MVA will be hard-pressed to choose candidates for the Upper House. Sharad Pawar has already indicated that he wants to retire from active politics. But Congress could push its allies to grant at least one seat in Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena, with 20 MLAs could either seek support from the Congress to send both Priyanka Chaturvedi and Sanjay Raut to Rajya Sabha again or back Congress in sending its candidate after Chaturvedi's term ends. 

But even support from the SP and the Left parties and the two independents cannot give more seats to the MVA, unless Mahayuti MLAs cross-vote.

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