The Rajya Sabha elections to fill the vacant seats from the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Haryana will be held tomorrow. Polls will be held for six seats from Maharashtra, two from Haryana and five each from Rajasthan and Karnataka.
The Rajya Sabha election was scheduled for June 10 to fill 57 vacant seats across 15 states. However, many candidates from different states have already been elected unopposed.
The sitting Rajya Sabha members are retiring on different dates between June 21 and August 1. This time, the Rajya Sabha elections are crucial for the political parties as the Presidential poll is scheduled in July.
Here is a look at the election of members for the Upper House of the Parliament.
Total Rajya Sabha Seats
The Upper House of the Parliament comprises 245 members, 233 elected and 12 nominated members. As per Article 80 of the Constitution of India, the strength of the Rajya Sabha cannot exceed the limit of 250 members.
The allocation of seats for Rajya Sabha is made on the basis of the population of each state.
The voting will be held tomorrow for 16 seats in four states. This consists of six seats in Maharashtra, four each in Rajasthan and Karnataka, and two in Haryana
Biennial Elections
Rajya Sabha is known as the permanent house of the Parliament and unlike Lok Sabha, it cannot be dissolved. As per Article 83(1), one-third of the members of Rajya Sabha retire every second year. While a Rajya Sabha member is elected for a term of six years, biennial elections are held to fill the vacant seats.
How Rajya Sabha MPs are elected?
Unlike Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha elections are indirect elections. The Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by the Members of the Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) of the respective states.
Article 80(4) lays out the procedure for the election of the members to the Upper House. The Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by the elected members of the State Assemblies through proportional representation by means of “the single transferable vote” as per the Article. The voting is carried out through an open ballot system.
During the voting process, the MLAs don't vote for each seat but they have to choose the candidates in order of their preference. If a candidate is chosen as the ‘first choice' by the qualifying number of voters (MLAs), that candidate will be elected.
The qualifying number of votes for each Rajya Sabha seat from a state depends on the full strength of the Assembly and the total number of MPs it sends to the Upper House.
Each voter ranks his preferences and if the first choice candidate has enough votes already or no chance of being elected, the vote is transferred to the second choice and so on.
Quota Vote Formula
Generally, each candidate needs at least one-fourth of the total votes plus one to be elected. However, there is a formula to decide the minimum required number of qualifying votes for each Rajya Sabha candidate to get elected, which is known as the quota vote.
The first choice vote of each MLA carries the value of 100 points. To decide the quota vote the formula is: [total number of votes/(number of vacant Rajya Sabha seats+1)]+1. For example, if the state has 200 MLAs and vacant RS seats are 4 then each candidate will need: [200/(4+1)]+1 which is either the support of 40 MLAs, or 4001 first preferential points.
If there are more than one seat that needs to be filled from a state the formula is modified. The total number of votes required for a candidate to get elected is: [total number of votes x 100/ (total vacant RS seats+1)]+1.
The results of the Rajya Sabha elections will be announced on the same day which is June 10.
Prominent leaders in fray
Prominent among those whose electoral fate will be decided are Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, Congress candidates Randeep Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh and Mukul Wasnik, and Shiv Sena's ubiquitous face Sanjay Raut. All these leaders are expected to win without a hiccup.
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