Rajya Sabha elections 2024: How the Upper House members are elected

BJP's ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 seats, the NISHAD Party has six seats, RLD has nine seats, SBSP has six, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has two and the BSP has one seat. Meanwhile, Congress, which is in alliance with the SP, has two seats.

Of the 403 seats in the UP Assembly, four are currently vacant.

Besides Sanjay Seth, BJP has fielded former Union Minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, general secretary of BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind), party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain, PTI reported.

Samajwadi Party has fielded retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan, actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.

To get elected to the Upper House of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh, a candidate needs nearly 37 first-preference votes.

In Congress-ruled Karnataka, five candidates are vying for the upcoming Rajya Sabha seats, with three belonging to Congress and one each from BJP and Janata Dal (Secular). The candidature of JD(S) leader D Kupendra Reddy has made a contest inevitable for the fourth seat, reports said.

The Congress has enough members in Himachal Pradesh to take the lone Rajya Sabha seat. However, there appears to be dissatisfaction among some sections of the party regarding senior party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi's candidacy. The BJP has fielded ex-Congress leader Harsh Mahajan against Singhvi in an attempt to take advantage of any rifts inside Congress.

Also called the Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha currently comprises 245 members. Of these, 233 are chosen via direct elections while 12 candidates are nominated by the President of India.

The number of votes required by a candidate to win the seat depends on the number of vacancies and the strength of the House. If there is only one seat from a particular state or Union Territory, the formula for this calculation is straightforward:

However, when more than one seat is to be filled, this formula undergoes certain modifications. In such cases, the number of votes required by a candidate can be viewed as:

To win the Rajya Sabha polls, a candidate is required to secure a specific number of votes, commonly referred to as the quota or preference vote.

A person, who is a citizen of India and aged 30 years and above, is eligible to become a member of the Rajya Sabha. Also, they must possess other relevant qualifications as prescribed by the Parliament. The fixed term of a member of the Upper House of Parliament is six years. However, if a member is elected in a by-election, then he/she will serve only for the remainder of the term of the vacant seat.