A view of Rajya Sabha when the Parliament is in session.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Rajya Sabha, or the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, will hold elections on Monday (March 16, 2026), with 37 seats going to the polls throughout 10 States, based on the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Rajya Sabha is a everlasting physique the place one-third of the members retire each two years, every serving a six-year time period. Article 80 of the Constitution permits a most of 250 members to it. Out of the 250, 238 are elected members who symbolize the States and Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir, which have Legislative Assemblies. The remaining 12 members are nominated by the President. Currently, the Upper House has 245 members.
How are members of the Rajya Sabha elected?
The members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by MLAs or Members of Legislative Assemblies. Elected members of the State Assemblies or Vidhan Sabhas and electoral schools of the Union Territories vote to elect folks to the Rajya Sabha.
The President of India nominates 12 members with particular data or expertise in fields reminiscent of artwork, literature, social providers, and so on.
What is the voting system?
Rajya Sabha follows a system referred to as the Proportional Representation by way of a Single Transferable Vote (STV).
In this method, as an alternative of voting for only a single candidate, MLAs get a poll paper with the names of all of the candidates. They should then rank them so as of their desire, i.e. first selection, second selection and so forth.
A candidate doesn’t want probably the most votes to win. They simply want to succeed in a selected “quota”. This quantity is calculated primarily based on the overall variety of MLAs voting and the variety of seats obtainable.
How are votes counted?
Round 1: All the “first choice” votes are counted. If a candidate meets or exceeds a quota, they’re instantly declared a winner.
Transferring surplus: If a winner will get extra votes than the quota, their votes are transferred to the “second choice.”
Elimination: If the seats are nonetheless empty after counting and nobody has reached the quota, the candidate with the bottom variety of votes is eradicated. Their votes are then redistributed to the remaining candidates primarily based on the following desire marked on these ballots.
The “Open Ballot” rule
The Rajya Sabha elections use an “open ballot” system. In this, every MLA, belonging to a political get together, should present their marked poll to their get together’s authorised agent earlier than casting it.
Failure to indicate the marked poll to your get together agent or exhibiting it to the incorrect particular person ends in that MLA’s vote being cancelled.
Independent MLAs are the exception, and they’re to maintain their votes secret.
When will the Rajya Sabha election outcomes be declared?
The States the place the seats are falling vacant in April are Maharashtra (seven), Tamil Nadu (six), West Bengal (5), Bihar (5), Odisha (4), Assam (three), Telangana (two), Chhattisgarh (two), Haryana (two), and Himachal Pradesh (one).
The seats are falling vacant on April 2 and April 9. The notifications for the polls had been issued on Thursday (February 26, 2026).
Polling might be held between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on March 16, 2026 and the votes might be counted from 5 p.m. the identical day.
Published – February 26, 2026 11:27 am IST
