Rajya Sabha polls on October 16 for 12 seats in UP, Uttarakhand and Bengal

The Election Commission has scheduled voting on October 16 for 12 Rajya Sabha seats across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. The contest could reshape Uttar Pradesh's Upper House balance and further squeeze the BSP.

In Short

• 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh and one in Uttarakhand fall vacant in November
• Nomination filing opens with notification on September 29 and closes October 6
• Votes will be counted the same day after polling on October 16

The Election Commission on Tuesday announced that elections to 12 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be held on October 16. The exercise will include 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh, one from Uttarakhand and a bypoll to one seat from West Bengal.

The 10 Uttar Pradesh seats and the Uttarakhand seat are falling vacant as the terms of the sitting members end on November 25. In West Bengal, the bypoll is being held after the resignation of Rukmini Mallik, popularly known as actor Koel Mallick.

According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission, the notification will be issued on September 29, nominations can be filed till October 6 and the votes will be counted on October 16.

Among those retiring from Uttar Pradesh are BJP leaders Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal, BL Verma, Seema Dwivedi and Hardeep Singh Puri, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP leader Ramji Gautam. The seat held by former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma has also been vacant since September 11, when his resignation took effect after his appointment as lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In Uttarakhand, BJP member Naresh Bansal's term is ending.

Of the 10 outgoing Uttar Pradesh seats, eight were held by the BJP, while the Samajwadi Party and the BSP held one each. The Rajya Sabha elections are due ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls next year. Based on the present Assembly arithmetic, the BJP-led alliance is expected to win eight seats, while the Samajwadi Party is projected to secure two. This could leave the BSP without representation in the Rajya Sabha, as it does not have the numbers to retain Gautam's seat on its own.

The BSP currently has no MLA in Uttar Pradesh after the death of its lone legislator, Uma Shankar Singh, in August. Even in 2020, it did not have the numbers to elect a Rajya Sabha member on its own. At the time, the BJP fielded only eight candidates for 10 seats, leaving room for Gautam. He was elected unopposed after the nomination of a Samajwadi Party-backed Independent was rejected, prompting the SP to allege a BJP-BSP understanding. The BJP is also comfortably placed to retain the Uttarakhand seat.

In West Bengal, the winner of the bypoll will serve the remainder of the term till April 2, 2032. With a clear majority in the West Bengal Assembly, the ruling BJP is set to wrest the seat from the Trinamool Congress. Overall, the October 16 elections will decide 12 Rajya Sabha seats across the three states, with Uttar Pradesh accounting for the bulk of them.

- Ends