Rajya Sabha Election 2022: Voting for 57 seats across 15 states tomorrow; who will pass litmus test?
The race has narrowed to 16 seats in four states, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, and Rajasthan, with 41 of the 57 new members already elected without opposition.
FollowRajya Sabha elections will be held in 15 states to fill 57 seats on Friday, June 10, 2022, with the Akali Dal expected to lose its upper house majority and the BJP's tally likely to remain below 100 after just passing the 100-seat mark. Congress is expected to lose a handful of seats due to recent polling failures.
The elections for the seats that will become vacant owing to members' retirement were announced on various dates between June and August.
Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal, and BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra are among those who will step down.
Following the established practice, counting will occur one hour after polling concludes. Most newly elected members are likely to vote in the President's election, which will take place in July.
Six members from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, five from Bihar, and four from Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Karnataka are retiring, leaving 11 seats empty in Uttar Pradesh.
Three members are retiring from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two from Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Haryana, and one from Uttarakhand.
The race has narrowed to 16 seats in four states, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, and Rajasthan, with 41 of the 57 new members already elected without opposition.
In the approaching Rajya Sabha elections, two factors are expected to intensify the battle between the BJP and Congress. The unhappiness within the Congress ranks over the party fielding "outsiders," which has given the BJP a sense of chance, and the entry of two media barons, Subhash Chandra and Kartikeya Sharma, both sponsored by the saffron party, have both given the BJP a sense of opportunity.
The entry of Chandra and Sharma has made the Congress's contest in Rajasthan and Haryana more difficult. Meanwhile, a Mumbai court's denial of bail to Maharashtra ministers Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh has reduced the MVA government's headcount against the saffron party.
The fear of cross-voting and horse-trading charges between the two parties has prompted the BJP and Congress to shift their MLAs to resorts in their last-minute bid to keep the flock intact.Â
The BJP expects to lose seats in Andhra Pradesh, with three outgoing members, Jharkhand and Rajasthan, but hopes to make up for them in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Balwinder Singh Bhunder, the Akali Dal's lone member from Punjab, and Congress' Ambika Soni are likely to make way for members of the Aam Aadmi Party, whose massive strength in the assembly will ensure that it wins both seats.
Five BJP MPs are among the 11 retiring Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh, and the party, along with its allies, is poised to win eight seats. At the same time, the opposition Samajwadi Party may retain its three.
In Maharashtra, the ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition has the strength to win all three seats, while the BJP can easily win two of its three.
The BSP's presence in the upper house will also likely be reduced to one after the elections.
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