The Election Commission of India has announced the schedule for the biennial election of the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh. The notification for the elections will be issued on March 5. The last date for filing nomination papers is March 12. The scrutiny of the papers will be held on March 13 and the last date of withdrawal of papers is March 15. The polling if required will be held on March 23. The counting of votes will be held same day and results will be announced by 5 pm.
While nine members, including Jaya Bachchan (SP) and Pramod Tiwari (Congress) are retiring on April 2, one seat vacated by BSP supremo Mayawati in July last year, will also go for elections. The nine members are retiring on April 2 are Kironmay nanda, Darshan Singh Yadav, NareshAgarwal, Jaya Bacchan, Chowdhary Munawwar Ali, Alok tewari (all Samajwadi party) Munkad Ali (Bahujan Samaj party) Pramod Tewari (Congress) and Vinay Katiyar (BJP).
The BJP will win minimum of 8 out of 10 Rajya Sabha seats on its strength of 325 MlAs along with the two allies –Apna Dal and Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj Party. The opposition Samajwadi party can win only one seat on its own strength. The opposition can win the 10th seat if the three opposition parties in UP assembly-- Samajwadi party, BSP and the Congress agree for the common candidate. The SP will have 14 votes; BSP has 19 MlAs and congress only seven. A minimum of 33 first preference votes are required for winning the Rajya Sabha elections.