The Election Commission of India has announced that elections for 56 Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant due to retirements in April 2024, to be held on February 27. In Madhya Pradesh, there are five Rajya Sabha seats. The BJP has won State Assembly elections just two months back with a handsome margin while the Congress lost bitterly. Definitely, it will have a significant impact on the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. The grand old party cannot expect to gain not more than a single seat in the Rajya Sabha from the State, before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Congress is likely to lose four seats and the ruling BJP will gain four seats. There are 11 Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh as the State has 230 Assembly seats. Rajya Sabha elections are to be held before the Lok Sabha elections. This is being described as the litmus test of the Lok Sabha elections. Elections are to be held for 56 Rajya Sabha, including five seats, from State, in different states, regarding which the Election Commission has issued a notification.

 

Since the Rajya Sabha members are elected by the MLAs in states, Congress has better numbers in 2023 to start with. With Congress facing successive defeats in by-elections and assembly elections, this scenario is going to affect the party to a greater extent in RS elections. A look at possible composition suggests, out of these five seats for which RS elections will be held, four are with the BJP and Congress has just one. The important point is that from BJP’s side, two Union Ministers L Murugan and Dharmendra Pradhan are also included in these seats. According to the political equation of the state, out of these five seats, only one seat can go to Congress’ account. Out of 11 Rajya Sabha seats in the State BJP holds eight seats and Congress holds three. The tenure of the Rajya Sabha members elected on 5 of these 11 seats is ending on 2 April 2024. In these 5 seats, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Ministers L Murugan, Kailash Soni and Ajay Pratap Singh are also there, while Rajmani Patel is from Congress.

 

BJP’s Rajya Sabha members from MP are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sumitra Valmiki, Kavita Patidar and Sumer Singh Solanki. Sumer Singh Solanki’s tenure is till 2026. Whereas, the tenure of Kavita Patidar and Sumitra Valmiki is till 2028. Digvijay Singh’s tenure will be completed in 2026 and Vivek Tankha’s tenure will be completed in 2028. The Rajya Sabha members are elected by the method of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (STV), very similar to how the members of legislative councils in some other states are elected. Each state has a fixed number of Rajya Sabha seats. Members keep retiring after their 6 year tenure and elections take place as and when there is a vacancy. The BJP has won 163 seats in Assembly elections while Congress’ tally reduced to just 66.