Rajya Sabha Elections 2018: State-Wise Scenario

In the biennial elections for the 58 Rajya Sabha seats from sixteen states this year, while 33 candidates from ten states have been unanimously elected, in the remaining six states – including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana polling will be held on 23 March to elect 25 members for the Upper house.

Simultaneously, a bypoll for one Rajya Sabha seat in Kerala will be held on the same day. Janata Dal (United) candidate M P Veerendra Kumar who has been backed by the ruling Left Democratic Front is pitted against Babu Prasad, Congress candidate. The seat had fallen vacant after Veerendrakumar resigned in December last year, when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar decided to join the National Democratic Alliance.

The ten states where candidates are unanimously elected are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha and Uttarakhand.

Six Union ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Dharmendra Pradhan, J P Nadda, Purshottam Rupala, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Mansukh Mandavia were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, whereas Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is in the contest from Uttar Pradesh.

Karnataka:

For the election to fill four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, the ruling Congress party had fielded three candidates namely L Hanumanthaiah, Naseer Hussain and GC Chandrashekar. The BJP nominated Rajeev Chandrashekar, sitting Rajya Sabha MP and JD(U) had fielded BM Farook as its candidate.

While Congress and BJP have enough strength in the state assembly to get their two and one candidates elected respectively, JD(S) is lagging behind since its seven rebel MLA candidates have earlier declared support Congress. Therefore, it is more likely for the Congress to get all its three candidates to emerge victorious.

West Bengal:

For the election to five vacant seats form West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has fielded four candidates--Nadimul Haque (renominated), Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas and Santunu Sen. The Congress nominated Abhishek Manu Singhvi and the CPI(M) nominated Rabin Deb as their candidates.

With TMC legislators set to back Congress’ Singhvi for the fifth seat, it is likely that he will get elected.

Uttar Pradesh:

There are 11 aspirants in the fray for 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh. The BJP which came to power in the state last year had nominated nine candidates including Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narasimha Rao and Anil Kumar Agarwal. The SP had fielded Jaya Bachchan and BSP’s candidate is Bhimrao Ambedkar.

As the BJP and SP have enough strength to win in eight and one seats respectively, for the remaining one seat, the contest will be between BJP and BSP. However, BSP is expected to attract support from Congress and SP, for its candidate to get elected.

Telangana:

For the three Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti fielded three candidates –J Santosh Kumar, B Lingaiah Yadav and B Prakash and the Congress fielded P Balaram as its candidate.

Although the TRS party has enough strength to win in only two seats, with AIMIM in the state extending their support to TRS, it is likely the party will win all three seats.

Chhattisgarh:

For the election in one seat from Chhattisgarh, the candidates in the fray are BJP national general secretary Saroj Pandey and the Congress' Lekhram Sahu. As the BJP has 49 MLAs in the 90-member Assembly, the saffron party has enough strength to win over the Congress.

Jharkhand:

There are three aspirants for two seats from Jharkhand. The BJP's Sameer Uranv and Pradeep Kumar Sonthalia and Congress Dheeraj Sahu are in the contest.  In the 80 member state assembly, the ruling BJP has 43 MLAs and its ally AJSU has 4, while Congress has 7, JMM has 18 MLAs, JVP (P) has 2, BSP 1, MCC 1, CPIML(L) 1 and Independents 3.

While BJP has enough strength to win in one seat, the verdict in another seat will be decided by the regional parties in the state.