Rajya Sabha Elections inviting us for a close contest on 26th of March 2020! #RajyaSabha #Elections2020

Rajya Sabha Elections 2020

It is all Coronavirus that’s been broadcast on the channels, but in the last 2-3 days a new topic for discussion has cropped up. The topic that brings drama to the table. In just more than a week time, we have the Rajya Sabha Elections which will be for electing 55 members. Unlike Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha has a term of 6 years and every 2 years 1/3rd of Rajya Sabha members retire.

So the elections are conducted to fill the vacant seats. There are 55 members to retire on March 26th and 2 already vacant seats. This takes the total seats for elections on March 26th to 57 members.

Rajya Sabha elections are silently conducted with not much of Hungama. That’s because of two reasons. One is that the people nominated are not those who come from masses and two because the mass is not involved directly in electing the Rajya Sabha members.

In such scenarios, we can understand the coverage and buzz that gets built is limited. But for a ruling party and in nation-building a Rajya Sabha election is as important as Lok Sabha Election. BJP is enjoying a powerful majority in Lok Sabha but needs to improve the majority in Rajya Sabha which will make sure the bills are passed smoothly with no pressure from the opposition.

So, here is the list of States and the number of seats to be filled:

  1. Maharashtra – 7
  2. Odisha – 4
  3. Tamil Nadu – 6
  4. West Bengal – 5
  5. Andhra Pradesh – 4
  6. Assam – 3
  7. Bihar – 5
  8. Chhattisgarh – 2
  9. Gujarat – 4
  10. Haryana – 2
  11. Himachal Pradesh – 1
  12. Jharkhand – 2
  13. Madhya Pradesh – 3
  14. Manipur – 1
  15. Rajasthan – 3
  16. Telangana – 2
  17. Meghalaya – 1

BJP – 81 seats and Congress – 46 seats. 

Link to know the current member’s list of all parties. – http://164.100.47.5/NewMembers/partystrength.aspx

Last few days were dramatic in India as the Rajya Sabha elections inch closer. Especially in MP and Gujarat. Rajya Sabha is the upper house of parliament where it is difficult to gain an advantage over the opposition. There are many states wherein the contest is completely unanimous and doesn’t need an election.

Like for example; Telangana has got 2 retiring seats but due to the powerful TRS, TRS will be able to retain both the seats. Same is the situation with Andhra Pradesh, there are 4 retiring seats to be filled. The ruling party YSRCP has enough assembly strength to win all 4.

But the interesting game is with two Northern Indian states. They are Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

1. Madhya Pradesh – The central state in the country has 3 seats to be filled on 26th March. With Jyotiraditya Scindia joining BJP, Congress hopes of retaining two seats have got rattled. MP is a state with 228 seats in the assembly. This means for a single seat to win, a party will need 228/(3+1) = 71 votes. Everything seemed normal and Congress was to win two seats, but the smart move from BJP will mean that they will add Scindia to their tally and potentially the floor test will dethrone Kamal Nath as CM of MP.

Image result for scindia

We have a lot of action-packed political news coming in from MP in the next few days.

2. Gujarat – Gujarat will see the elections for 4 seats. BJP presently holds 3 from them and 1 with INC. But the last assembly elections saw a close fight and not a big difference between BJP and Congress. Gujarat is assembly with 181 seats. But a shocker knocked doors of Congress, 5 MLAs resigned to bring the seats down to 176. So, here the votes needed to win a single seat are 176/(4+1) = 36.

Congress now has only 69 MLA’s, so all that they can win is 1 Seat. BJP has got 103 MLAs in the current assembly. This will give them 2 seats with ease and will need 5 more votes to win the third seat as well. BJP will be hoping for cross-voting, even then the better chances of winning two seats are with INC.

For me, Gujarat is going to be an intriguing contest as compared to Madhya Pradesh which seems to be decided. To add a little spice to the elections, BJP nominated Ex – CJI Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha and that brought a heavy trolling for him on social media.

March 26th 2020 will be fun. Will BJP increase it’s tally or will Congress stitch alliances to salvage something is to be seen.

Image result for ranjan gogoi

Published by Sriram

A Teacher trying to Learn new things and explore the world each day! Believe in Happiness by the virtue of sacrifice and forgiveness.

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