Rajya Sabha polls for 12 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal on October 16

Elections to 12 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be held on October 16 the Election Commission announced on Tuesday setting the stage for a closely watched round of contests in the Upper HouseThe polls will cover 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and one in Uttarakhand where the terms of the sitting members are ending on November 25 A separate byelection will be held for one vacant Rajya Sabha seat in West BengalAccording to the schedule announced by the poll panel the notification for the elections will be issued on September 29 Candidates can file their nominations until October 6 while voting and counting will take place on October 16Ten Uttar Pradesh seats up for electionThe Uttar Pradesh contests account for the bulk of the seats going to polls Among the members whose terms are ending are BJP leaders Arun Singh Geeta Shakya Neeraj Shekhar Brijlal B L Verma Seema Dwivedi and Hardeep Singh Puri along with Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSPs Ramji GautamOne more seat in the state has been vacant since September 11 following the resignation of former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma His resignation took effect after he was appointed lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar IslandsEight of the 10 outgoing Uttar Pradesh seats were held by the BJP while the Samajwadi Party and BSP held one seat eachThe Rajya Sabha elections assume added significance as Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to hold Assembly elections next year The composition of the state Assembly will determine the strength of different parties in the Upper House contestsCurrent Assembly numbers shape contestBased on the present arithmetic in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly projections cited in the political assessment indicate that the BJPled alliance could secure eight of the 10 seats while the Samajwadi Party could secure twoThese are projections based on the current strength of parties in the state Assembly and are not election resultsThe BSP faces the possibility of losing its representation in the Rajya Sabha because it does not currently have enough legislators to independently retain Gautams seatThe BSP has no MLA in Uttar Pradesh following the death of its lone legislator Uma Shankar Singh in August The party also did not have sufficient numbers to independently elect a Rajya Sabha member in the 2020 electionAt that time however the BJP fielded eight candidates for the 10 available seats leaving an opening for BSP candidate Ramji Gautam Gautam was elected unopposed after the nomination of an Independent candidate backed by the Samajwadi Party was rejected The Samajwadi Party subsequently alleged an understanding between the BJP and BSPUttarakhand seat also due for electionIn Uttarakhand BJP Rajya Sabha member Naresh Bansals term is coming to an end The BJP has the required numbers in the state Assembly to retain the seat based on the current compositionThe Uttarakhand election will be held alongside the 10 Uttar Pradesh contests on October 16The elections will be conducted according to the Rajya Sabhas electoral system with elected members of the respective state legislatures voting in the contestsWest Bengal seat to be filled through bypollThe West Bengal contest is a byelection necessitated by the resignation of Rukmini Mallik popularly known as actor Koel Mallick on July 16The winner of the byelection will serve the remainder of the term which runs until April 2 2032The political arithmetic in the West Bengal Assembly will determine the outcome of the bypoll The ruling party in the state currently has a majority in the Assembly and the contest will fill the vacancy created by Malliks resignationWith a clear majority in the West Bengal Assembly the ruling BJP is set to wrest the seat from the Trinamool CongressThe October 16 elections will therefore cover both regular biennial Rajya Sabha vacancies and a casual vacancy in West Bengal The results will determine the composition of the Upper House from the three states for the respective termsWith inputs from PTI