Rajya Sabha Polls: Biennial Elections Scheduled for October 16

The biennial polls for 11 Rajya Sabha seats – 10 from Uttar Pradesh (UP) and one from Uttarakhand – will be held on October 16, the Election Commission (EC) announced on Tuesday. A bypoll for an Upper House seat from West Bengal will also be held on the day, it said. Of the 11 seats, ten (nine from UP and one from Uttarakhand) are due to fall vacant as the terms of the current MPs will expire on November 25. Meanwhile, one UP seat is already vacant after BJP MP Dinesh Sharma resigned on September 11 to take charge as Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Of the 10 Upper House seats from UP, eight are held by the BJP. Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party hold one seat each. The lone seat in Uttarakhand is that of BJP MP Naresh Bansal. The other UP seats will be vacated by Arun Singh, Geeta alias Chandraprabha, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal, Ram Gopal Yadav, Ramji, B L Verma, Seema and Hardeep Singh Puri. The Bengal seat was left vacant after TMC leader Rukmini Malik tendered her resignation just days after her party’s landslide defeat in the recently-concluded Assembly polls. BJP is not only expected to retain its existing nine Rajya Sabha seats (eight in UP and one in Uttarakhand) in the biennial polls, the party’s 2026 sweep of West Bengal means it will add yet another berth to its solo tally of 116 in the 245-Member House. The Samajwadi Party, too, has the numbers to retain its current seat, in addition to claiming another. With 256 and 101 MLAs, respectively, BJP and SP hold sway in the 403-strong UP Assembly. The remainder of the 398 occupied seats here comprises 40 legislators from NDA constituents such as Apna Dal (S), which has 13, and the RLD (9), in addition to legislators from smaller parties. However, the BJP and NDA have an edge over the Opposition since a party will require the support of at least 36 MLAs in the Lower HOuse for each Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh. As of now, the BJP-led NDA has a combined strength of 150 MPs in the 245-Member Upper House. Non-NDA parties account for a little over 100 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. There are also fence-sitters among the fold, such as the DMK, the BJD, the YSR and BRS, which account for eight, five, four and five seats, respectively.