The elections to 13 Rajya Sabha seats across six states will be held tomorrow. These seats include the maximum five in Punjab followed by three in Kerala, two in Assam and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura.
With the BJP retaining power in four out of five states where polls were held recently, the saffron party eyes to wrest majority in the Upper House in the coming year. The BJP currently has a strength of 97 in the 245-member Rajya Sabha.
The Congress, on the other hand, is set to come precariously close to losing the Leader of Opposition (LoP) post by July this year, when another round of biennial elections for the Upper House will be held.
All the seven seats of Punjab are getting vacant this year. Elections to the five seats have already been announced and another two will come up for polls in July. All these seats are expected to go to the new victor- the Aam Aadmi Party, which won 92 seats. Currently, three each are with the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal and one with the BJP.
By tomorrow, the Congress is already set to lose three three seats — two from Assam and one from Himachal. The retirees include the party’s deputy leader in the House, Anand Sharma, who was elected from Himachal Pradesh.
Moreover, it will lose the three seats in Punjab and one each from Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Among those who are retiring include former Union minister Kapil Sibal, who was nominated from Uttar Pradesh, and Ambika Soni, who was elected from Punjab.
Adding up, the Grand Old Party it set to face the brunt of poll debacles in the form of losing eight seats in the upper House, bringing down its current tally of 34 to 26. As per the Rajya Sabha rules and procedures, for any party to hold the position of Leader of Opposition its strength must be at least 10 percent of the total strength. The House currently has only 237. So, for the party to hold on to the LoP post, it must have 24-25 members.
Rajya Sabha i.e. the ‘Council of states’ is a permanent House and is not subject to dissolution. A member who is elected for a full term serves for a period of six years. The representatives of each State and 2 Union territories (UT) 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, and that for Puducherry consists of the elected members of the Puducherry Legislative Assembly.
