Rajya Sabha Elections 2018- BJP Confident In Winning All Seats In UP

Election of members for 58 Rajya Sabha seats and a bye-election seat is taking place across 16 states today. Out of 58 Rajya Sabha seats, polling is being held for 25 vacant seats as 33 candidates from 10 states have been elected unopposed. The voting started at 9 am and will continue till 4 pm. Counting of votes for the election will begin from 5 pm and results are expected to be announced by today evening.

The polling is taking place in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. The BJP is expected to gain about a dozen seats in the Upper House and consolidate its position as the largest party. However, it is still far from a majority in the 245-member house.

Elected representatives of state legislatures will elect Rajya Sabha members by a process of indirect voting in what is called proportional representation with a single transferable vote.

The Rajya Sabha elections are being held as 58 members will retire next month. Here’s the list of states and the number of seats which will be filled after today’s election:

Andhra Pradesh (3), Bihar (6), Chhattisgarh (1), Gujarat (4), Haryana (1), Himachal Pradesh (1), Karnataka (4), Madhya Pradesh (5), Maharashtra (6), Telangana (3), Uttar Pradesh (10), Uttarakhand (1), West Bengal (5), Odisha (3), Rajasthan (3) and Jharkhand (2).

Besides the Rajya Sabha elections, a bypoll will also be held for one seat in Kerala where MP Veerendra Kumar, the Left-backed candidate of Sharad Yadav faction of the JD(U), is pitted against Babu Prasad of the Congress.