NEW DELHI: Elections for 59 Rajya Sabha seats, across 16 states, will be held today to fill vacancies arising after the retirement of 59 members of the Upper House early next month. Here is a look at some key points about the polls:

* While BJP has the majority in the Lower House, in the Upper House it only has 58 members, four more than the Congress.

* The ruling party is confident of improving its tally of seats as it has a government in 11 of the 16 states, including Uttar Pradesh, which will be electing the largest number of Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament (MPs), 10.

* In Uttar Pradesh, BJP is confident of winning 8 of the 10 seats. However, it has also decided to field a ninth candidate - businessman Anil Kumar Agarwal.

* For the remaining two seats, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded one candidate each — Jaya Bachchan and Bhim Rao Ambedkar, respectively.

* The current strength of RS is 245, out of which 233 are elected and 12 are nominated and 126 seats are needed for the majority.

* The 58 seats which will fall vacant are from 16 states — Uttar Pradesh (10), Maharashtra (6), Bihar (6), Bengal (5), Madhya Pradesh (5), Gujarat (4), Karnataka (4), Andhra Pradesh (3), Telangana (3), Rajasthan (3), Odisha (3), Jharkhand (2), Chhattisgarh (1), Haryana (1), Himachal Pradesh (1) and

Uttarakhand (1).

* While 33 candidates from 10 state have been unanimously elected. Voting will take place today for the remaining 25 seats, in six states — Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

* The voting for seats in Upper House is done by the elected representative of the state legislative assemblies.

* The results of the elections are expected to be declared in the evening soon after the conclusion of the counting process.

* The voting for seats in Upper House is done by the elected representative of the state legislative assemblies and Electoral College for the Union Territories. The number of seats allocated to a state depends on the population of that state.

* A single term last six years and every two years, one-third of the total seats in RS goes to poll.

* The votes are calculated based on a formula, which is known as proportional representation with a single transferable vote.

For example, in UP, a candidate will need the support of 37 MLAs in the 404-member assembly, to get elected.



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