Voting happened for 15 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday. The voting process started at 9 am, with vote counting beginning at 5 pm.
Out of the 56 Rajya Sabha seats, contested today, 41 members have obtained their positions in the upper house without facing opposition.
Among the unopposed elected Rajya Sabha MPs are former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Ashok Chavan, and union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan.
Rajya Sabha MPs serve a term of six years, with elections held every two years for 33 % of the seats. Currently, the Rajya Sabha comprises 245 members.
Voting has started for the remaining seats in the Upper House of Parliament: 10 in Uttar Pradesh, four in Karnataka, and one in Himachal Pradesh. Results are expected later in the day. The BJP has nominated eight candidates in Uttar Pradesh, while the Samajwadi Party has presented three for the ten Rajya Sabha seats.
Approximately 37 first-preference votes are required for a candidate to win a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh. The biennial election to fill four vacancies was underway in Karnataka. Five candidates are contending for these seats, including Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and GC Chandrasekhar from Congress, Narayana Bandage from BJP, and Kupendra Reddy from JD(S).
The Congress has issued a whip directing all its MLAs in Himachal Pradesh to support the party’s candidate, Abhishek Manu Singhvi. This decision has drawn criticism from the BJP, which argues that legislators should have the freedom to vote according to their preferences.
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