Election Of Members Of Rajya Sabha With Case Study

Election of Members of Rajya Sabha is very different from election of members of Lok Sabha. Members of Rajya Sabha is elected indirectly through proportional representation through single transferrable vote.

Rajya Sabha is a permanent body of Parliament. It never goes through dissolution. Rajya Sabha has elected members as well as nominated members. The total capacity of Rajya Sabha is 250. 238 members have to be elected by members of legislative assemblies of states. States includes National Capital Territory of Delhi and UT of Puducherry.

Around one third of members of Rajya Sabha complete their term every two years, as such election for vacant seats are conducted every two years. Recent elections for members of Council of States have been conducted in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022.

What is composition of Electoral College for election of members of Rajya Sabha ?

The elected members of Legislative Assemblies form the Electoral College. Nominate Members of Legislative Assembly cannot vote in election of members of Rajya Sabha.

What is method of election of Members of Rajya Sabha ?

Election of members of Rajya Sabha is done through proportional representation through single transferrable vote. The election is conducted through open ballot.  Due to this system political parties in a state get their proportional share in Rajya Sabha. When the number of contesting candidates are equal to vacant posts, then elections are not conducted. But when number of contesting candidates are more than vacant posts, elections are conducted.

Process of election is as under:

• Election Commission notifies election for various seats of Rajya Sabha in different states
• Candidates file their nomination papers and after verification list of contesting   candidates are prepared
• The voters vote for all candidates and mark their preference against each candidate
• If there is one vacant post, the value of vote of one member is one and quota is determined on the basis of following formula:

QUOTA = Total Number of Votes/(Number of Seats+1) + 1

• If there is more than one vacant post, the value of one vote of one is taken at 100.
• If a candidate is gets votes equal to the quota or more than that, he is declared winner.
• In subsequent counting, the surplus vote of elected candidates are distributed to other candidates on the basis of second preference
• Even if after distribution of surplus votes, all the seats are not filled, then the candidate who has received least original votes are eliminated and second preference votes are distributed among other candidates.
• This process goes on till candidates equal to vacant post get the number of votes prescribed in the quota or after elimination only candidates equal to the vacant posts are left.

We will understand the whole process through a case study to get more clarity.

Election In Karnatka For Rajya Sabha In 2022

Election Commission issued press note on 12^th May, 2022 for election of  57 members of Rajya Sabha from 15 states.

There were four vacant seats for Rajya Sabha in  Karnataka.

Six candidates were contesting for these seats. Karnatka Assembly has 224 elected seats. After voting all the 224 votes were found to be valid.

Quota for winning the seat will be = ((224 x 100)/(4+1)) + 1 = (22400/5) + 1=4481

Sr. No.	Name of Candidate	1st Count	2nd Count	3rd Count	4th Count	5th Count	Result
1	D. Kupendra Reddy (JD (S))	3000	3000	3000	3000	Eliminated	Eliminated
2	Jaggesh (BJP)	4400	4400	4400	4400	4400	Elected
3	Jairam Ramesh (INC)	4600	4600	4481 (-119)	4481	4481	Elected
4	Nirmala Sitharaman (BJP)	4600	4481 (-119)	4481	4481	4481	Elected
5	Mansoor Ali Khan (INC)	2500	2500	2592 (+91)	Eliminated	________	Eliminates
6	Lahar Singh Saroya (BJP)	3300	3417 (+117)	3417	3617 (+200)	3617	Elected
	Loss due to fraction/Exhausted Votes		2	27	2392	3000

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