EC announces polls for 57 RS seats; BJP in control, Congress cautious

Elections will be held on June 10 to fill 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states falling vacant due to the retirement of members on different dates between June and August. BJP whose numbers in the House fell down slightly this month, due to retirements of some members, could see its graph intact post-elections.

However, the real worry is for Congress, whose number could slide. In the 245-member House, Congress has just 29 members now. Akali Dal will be another loser while AAP will gain.

In April this year, the BJP BJP touched the 100 mark in the upper house of parliament, becoming the first party to do so since 1988. This was after it won three more seats in the Rajya Sabha from Assam, Tripura and Nagaland leading to a rise in its number to 101. However, its number came down to 95 this month with the retirement of some party members in the Upper House.

After this round of elections, the party is expected to stay firm, though it will lose seats in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. UP and Uttarakhand will help it make for losses. In UP, the BJP could win three more seats. Aam Aadmi Party will be a gainer in Punjab at the cost of Akali Dal and Congress. In Maharashtra, the BJP could lose one of its three seats

BJP is still far away from a majority in the House on its own but neutral parties like BJD, TRS and even YSR Congress and BSP have many times helped it pass the contentious bills by either supporting it directly or abstaining from voting and thereby bringing down the number of members of House present at the time of voting for the bills.

More than 70 members will be retiring in the next few months. Of these 20 will retire next month and 33 in July. The Election Commission Thursday announced the schedule of polls with voting on June 10 and results on June for 57 seats as the term of office of these members of the Council of States elected from 15 States is due to expire between June-August and 2022.

BJP is breathing easy for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections after having won elections in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. A maximum of 11 seats are falling vacant in Uttar Pradesh. In Uttarakhand, BJP will contest for the seats falling vacant after the retirement of Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta.

Six members each are retiring from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, five from Bihar and four each from Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka. They also include three members each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana, and one from Uttarakhand.

Besides, bypolls to two Rajya Sabha seats, one each from Bihar and Telangana will be held on May 30.

Those retiring in this period include Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Congress leaders P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh and Kapil Sibal, Sharad Yadav (whose seat is vacant from 2017 after his exit from JDU), BSP's Satish Chandra Misra, RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti, JD's key leader RCP Singh, BJP's Om Prakash Mathur from Rajasthan, Vinay Sahsrabuddhe from Maharashtra and Suresh Prabhu from Andhra Pradesh.

Many of these members, who are retiring between June 21 and August 1, will stage a comeback in the House as it always happens.