Rajya Sabha Elections 2024: 56 seats across 15 states to go to polls on Feb 27

Jan 29, 2024 02:07 PM IST

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Rajya Sabha members serve a six-year term and one-third of the members retire every two years to ensure continuity.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday announced that 56 seats of Rajya Sabha from 15 states will go to polls on February 27.

The term of office for 50 Rajya Sabha members from 13 states is set to conclude on April 2, while the remaining six members from two states are due to retire on April 3.

The states where the Rajya Sabha polls are slated to take place include Uttar Pradesh (10), Maharashtra (6), Bihar (6), West Bengal (5), Madhya Pradesh (5), Gujarat (4), Karnataka (4), Andhra Pradesh (3), Telangana (3), Rajasthan (3), Odisha (3), Uttarakhand (1), Chhattisgarh (1), Haryana (1), and Himachal Pradesh (1).

Rajya Sabha elections 2024 schedule

Events	Dates
Issue of notifications	February 8
Last date of making nominations	February 15
Scrutiny of nominations	February 16
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures	February 20
Date of poll	February 27
Hours of poll	9am - 4pm
Counting of votes	February 27 at 5pm
Date before which elections shall be completed	February 29

The term of office for a member of the Rajya Sabha is six years.

One-third of the members of the Rajya Sabha, a permanent body, retire every two years, ensuring continuity in the functioning of the house.

Members of the upper house of the Parliament, are elected indirectly by the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies. They are elected through a system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote.

Voting process

In the voting process, each MLA's ballot paper contains as many preferences as there are candidates to be elected. MLAs vote by marking their preferences against the names of candidates. If a candidate secures the required quota of votes in the first round, they are declared elected.

If not, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated, and their votes are transferred to the remaining candidates based on the preferences indicated by the MLAs. This process continues until all vacancies are filled.