Elections are being held for 59 seats in the upper house of India’s Parliament this week. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which continues to enjoy a majority in the Lok Sabha, has 58 seats in the 245-member Rajya Sabha.
Coming close on the heels of the party’s bypoll losses in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is attempting to turn the narrative in India’s largest state by capturing an extra Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh. Elsewhere, the dynamics between the Indian National Congress and regional parties could give an early peek into which way political relationships are moving going into next year’s general election.
As Rajya Sabha elections are conducted on a party’s strength in state assemblies, many states – including large ones like Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh – saw no-contest. Many candidates selected by their parties will win unopposed. But in states like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Jharkhand, the contest is going down to the last elector in the legislative assembly.