RajyaSabha and its elections – All details in nutshell!

It is essential to know about RajyaSabha and its elections, especially when preparing yourself for the UPSC exams. These exams are complex, and many of them are challenging enough to crack in one attempt. But if you are dedicated and passionate to clear it, no one can ever stop you. Among some of the important subjects, topics related to RajyaSabha like what is RajyaSabha, what is its significance, facts related to it are extremely important both for the Prelims and Mains. Let’s begin the discussion from scratch.

The legislature of the Union, which is known as Parliament. This is comprised of the president and two houses. The two houses are called the Council of States that is RajyaSabha, and the House of the People, which is the LokSabha.

One has to know about RajyaSabha and its elections, especially when preparing for UPSC exam. It's difficult to crack UPSC without proper prep

Today, we will discuss how the elections are held in RajyaSabha. It is important to know as a citizen of India. Many of us know how the elections are held in LokSabha. It is also important to know about the election procedure of the RajyaSabha at the same time. The procedure of the election in the RajyaSabha is complicated.

The election procedure of the RajyaSabha is not conducted in the RajyaSabha. It is conducted on the floor of state legislative assemblies. Rajya has 19 seats in total, and the members are elected from eight states. The election of the LokSabha is extremely interesting, but RajyaSabha is not that boring. Before knowing about the election procedure of the RajyaSabha, let us know a little bit about it.

About RajyaSabha and its elections 

The fundamentals of RajyaSabha

The Constitution of India provides RajyaSabha with 250 members. From these 250 members, 12 members are nominated by the President of India. The president will nominate them on the basis of their knowledge, practical experience in the subjects related to literature, science, arts, and social service. The present strength of RajyaSabha, however, is 245, out of which 233 are representatives of the States and Union territories of Delhi and Puducherry.

Elections procedures in RajyaSabha are indirect. The elected members of legislative assemblies of the States elect the members who will represent the state in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Further, the representing Union Territories are chosen in accordance with the law prescribes. The RajyaSabha is never going to dissolute as every second year, one-third of its members retire.

The importance of forming the RajyaSabha 

Initially, there was a single directly elected House. But later on, it was considered to be insufficient to meet all the challenges. For this reason, a second house was formed, which is known as the ‘Council of States’. It has a different composition and different procedure of election.

Moreover, the Indian constitution is considered the federal chamber. That means it is a house in which elections were helped with the already existing elected members of the Assemblies of the states and two Union Territories. Here the states are not equally represented. There are many other federal countries that provide the equality of the states. Along with the elected members of the house, provision was also made for the nomination of the twelve members to the house by the president.

Seat allocation of RajyaSabha

The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution provides the allocation of seats to the States and Union Territories in RajyaSabha. The process of allocating seats is done on the basis of the population of the states. The number of elected seats in the RajyaSabha allotted to States, and Union Territories has gone through several changes from time to time since 1952. Following is the name of the states, along with their number of seats depending on the population.

Name of State with the number of seats

  • Andhra Pradesh with 18 seats
  • Arunachal Pradesh with 1 seat
  • Assam with 7 seats
  • Bihar with 16 seats
  • Chhattisgarh with 5 seats
  • Goa with 1 seat
  • Gujarat with 11 seats
  • Haryana with 5 seats
  • Himachal Pradesh with 3 seats
  • Jammu & Kashmir with 4 seats
  • Jharkhand with 6 seats
  • Karnataka with 12 seats
  • Kerala with 9 seats
  • Madhya Pradesh with 11 seats
  • Maharashtra with 19 seats
  • Manipur with 1 seat
  • Meghalaya with 1 seat
  • Mizoram with 1 seat
  • Nagaland with 1 seat
  • National Capital Territory (Delhi) with 3 seats
  • Nominated with 12 seats
  • Odisha with 10 seats
  • Pondicherry with 1 seat
  • Punjab with 7 seats
  • Rajasthan with 10 seats
  • Sikkim with 1 seat
  • Tamil Nadu with 18 seats
  • Tripura with 1 seat
  • Uttar Pradesh with 31 seats
  • Uttarakhand with 3 seats
  • West Bengal with 16 seats

RajyaSabha and its elections – the procedure 

Elections to 1/3 of the seats in RajyaSabha occur every 2 years. The members of the RajyaSabha give preferences for each candidate. In this regard, the member who will get a maximum number of votes, her/his party, will be selected.

To know more about it, visit our website.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *