Rajya Sabha Elections 2022: The much-awaited Rajya Sabha elections to fill up as many as 57 crucial seats of the Upper House from 15 states will be held on June 10, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Thursday. The seats will fall vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. The counting of votes will be done on the same day.
According to reports, notification for the biennial poll will be issued on May 27 and the last date for nomination of candidate is May 31. Scrutiny will be held on June 1, while the polling will be held on June 10 from 9 am to 4 pm. The counting of votes will begin at 5 pm on the same day.
Term of office of 57 leaders, including 11 from Uttar Pradesh, six each from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, five from Bihar, four each from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Haryana, and one from Uttarakhand is due to expire in the months to come.
Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh and Kapil Sibal, and BSP's Satish Chandra Misra are some political stalwarts who will retire. These members are retiring between June 21 and August 1.
Rajya Sabha Elections: How Numbers Stack Up Presently
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eyes to wrest majority in Rajya Sabha after its spectacular win in four out of five states where Assembly Elections were held earlier this year. Currently, the saffron party has a strength of 101 in the 245-member Rajya Sabha.
The Congress, on the other hand, has 29 seats and is set to lose another two in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. However, these two can be compensated by Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has 13 memebers in the Upper House, while Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party's strength is three and is likely to lose two in Uttar Pradesh.
Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been the biggest gainer in the recent round of the Rajya Sabha biennial elections. It won five seats, with which its strength in the House has gone up to eight.
So far, out of the 70 seats up for Rajya Sabha biennial polls this year, the elections for 13 were held on March 31 in Kerala, Punjab, Assam, Tripura and Nagaland.
Out of the 13, BJP has won two seats in Assam, one each in Tripura and Nagaland, dislodging sitting members from the CPI(M) and the Naga People's Front, respectively.
AAP has won five seats in Punjab and out of the three in Kerala, the CPI(M) and CPI one each and the Congress one (A.K. Antony).
How Rajya Sabha Members Are Elected?
Rajya Sabha which is the 'Council of states' and a permanent House that cannot be dissolved. An elected Rajya Sabha member serves for a period of six years.
The representatives of each State and 2 Union territories (UTs) are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly by means of the single transferable vote, in accordance with the system of proportional representation.
In case of Union Territory, the Electoral College votes for the Rajya Sabha members. The Electoral College for the National Capital Territory of Delhi consists of the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of Delhi. For, Puducherry, it consists of the elected members of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly.