55 Rajya Sabha seats to go to polls on March 26

Elections to 55 Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in April will be held on March 26 in which the ruling BJP will lose a number of seats owing to losses in state polls in last one and half year.

Election Commission on Tuesday announced the schedule for the seats from the 17 states for which election will be held in phases.

Key members of Rajya Sabha, who are retiring (many of them will be back) are NCP boss Sharad Pawar, Minister for State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale, Congress leader Motilal Vora and BJP leader Vijay Goel.

There is also a buzz that there may be an attempt to bring Priyanka Gandhi to Rajya Sabha but there has been no confirmation from the party on this so far.

Among the retiring members, 14 belong to the BJP, which currently has 82 members in the Upper House, being the single largest party there. Congress which is second with 46 members in the House, could increase its tally this time, benefiting from the victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh in 2018 state polls.

BJP will also lose after its number of seats in Maharashtra where it lost its oldest ally Shiv Sena and thereby the government. The maximum of seven vacancies are from Maharasthra this time. Of the seven seats in Maharashtra, BJP can win only two while NCP and Congress will have do some intelligent mathematics to share the pie of remaining five seats among them.

Tamil Nadu will have six vacancies, West Bengal and Bihar five each, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat four each, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan three each, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Telangana twoeach, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Assam will have one vacancies each.

NDA will lose two of the five seats falling vacant in Bihar. Of the five seats falling vacant in West Bengal, TMC can win four as per its numbers while one seat will go to a combine of either Left-Congress or TMC-Congress. BJP with its eight MLAs cannot win a single seat.

In Odisha, it remains to be seen whether BJD goes for any truck with BJP, which is also contesting the polls. Last year BJD had lent its weight behind BJP candidate Ashwini Vaishnav. YSR Congress will win all four seats in Andhra Pradesh and TS two in Telangana. Congress is set to lose all its three seats falling vacant from these two southern states. In Tamil Nadu, AIDMK and DMK (with Congress help) will win three each of the total six seats.

Schedule :

February 25- Election Schedule Announced

March 6- Notification for the RS elections for 55 seats will be issued.

March 13- The last date of filing nominations.

March 26- Pollling will be held and votes will be counted an hour after the conclusion of polls.

States with vacancy : Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Assam.