Rajya Sabha polls for 25 seats today: Here's all you need to know

For the remaining 25 seats of Rajya Sabha, polling is being held in six states including Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

For the 58 Rajya Sabha seats to be filled, 33 candidates from 10 states were declared elected unopposed on March 15. Seven union ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar were among them. Voting for the remaining 25 seats will be held in six states — Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Telangana.

Here's all you need to know

► The strength of the House?

The maximum strength of Rajya Sabha as 250, out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and of the two Union Territories.  

► How the representatives are elected

The representatives of the States and of the Union Territories in the Rajya Sabha are elected by the method of indirect election. The representatives of each State and two Union territories are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of that State and by the members of the Electoral College for that Union Territory, as the case may be, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

► Allocation of seats

The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution provides for allocation of seats to the States and Union Territories in Rajya Sabha. 

The allocation of seats is made on the basis of the population of each State.  Consequent on the reorganization of States and formation of new States, the number of elected seats in the Rajya Sabha allotted to States and Union Territories has changed from time to time since 1952. 

► Qualifications

A candidate must be a citizen of India and make and subscribe before some person authorized in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule to the Constitution.

He must be not less than 30 years of age.

he must possess such other qualifications as may be prescribed in that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament.

► Candidates in fray

Uttar Pradesh: Besides Jaitley, the others in the fray are Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narasimha Rao and Anil Kumar Agarwal.

West Bengal: Altogether six candidates, including Congress nominee Abhisek Manu Singhvi, are in the fray. The state's ruling TMC has decided to back the eminent lawyer.

Karnataka: Five candidates are in the electoral arena for four seats. The state's ruling Congress has fielded three nominees, while there are one each of the BJP and JD(S).

Jharkhand: Elections will also be held for two seats in where three candidates are in the fray, including two of the state's ruling BJP and one of the Congress.

Chhattisgarh: One candidate each of the ruling BJP and main opposition Congress will cross swords for the lone seat.

Telangana: Four candidates will try their luck.