Hyderabad/New Delhi: Elections will be held on June 10 for 57 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states, include two from Telangana. While the TRS is seen to win both the seats, the Akali Dal will lose its presence in the Upper House and the BJP’s tally will remain below 100 after touching the milestone recently.
Prominent among those retiring between June 21 and August 1 are Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh and Kapil Sibal, and BSP’s Satish Chandra Misra. In Telangana, the vacancies will be caused by retirement of TRS members D. Srinivas and Capt. V. Lakshmikanta Rao on June 21.
Besides, the EC issued notification for conducting bypoll for one Rajya Sabha seat for Telangana on May 30, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of TRS member Banda Prakash in December last after he was elected MLC under the MLAs’ quota. This seat will also go to the TRS.
TRS supremo and Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao is expected to announce the party’s candidates for all three seats before May 19.
The BJP has 95 members and the Congress 29 in the 245-member House. Eleven seats will fall vacant in Uttar Pradesh, six each from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, five from Bihar and four each from Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka.
Three members each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana, and one from Uttarakhand are also retiring.
The BJP is set to suffer losses in Andhra Pradesh, where it has three outgoing members, Jharkhand and Rajasthan but is hopeful of making up for it in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Five BJP MPs are among the 11 retiring Rajya Sabha members from UP, and the party along with its allies is in a position to win eight seats, while the Opposition Samajwadi Party may retain its tally of three.
In Maharashtra, the ruling coalition Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition can retain its three, and the BJP two of its three seats. The elections are also likely to see the BSP’s presence in the upper house reducing to a mere one.
The Akali Dal’s lone member from Punjab Balwinder Singh Bhunder and Congress’ Ambika Soni are likely to make way for members from the Aam Aadmi Party.
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