Elections to 10 UP Rajya Sabha seats on October 16, Bengal by-election on same day

The UP seats will be vacated by Arun Singh, Geeta alias Chandraprabha, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal, Ram Gopal Yadav, Ramji, BL Verma, Seema and Hardeep Singh Puri. The Uttarakhand seat going to polls is occupied by Naresh Bansal, while the Bengal seat was vacated by the resignation of Rukmini Malik. Former BJP national general secretary Arun Singh, a loyal organisational hand, is considered close to the party’s senior leadership.

As per the EC schedule, polling and counting of votes will be held on October 16.

As of now, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has at least 142 MPs in the 245-member House where 242 berths are currently occupied. With 123 votes constituting the total majority and 161 the special majority mark if all members are present and voting, the BJP has 116 MPs on its own, including the seven AAP MPs who joined the party in April this year, in the Council of States. A majority of the seven nominated Members are also understood to have allegiance to the BJP.

While non-NDA parties account for a little over 100 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, there are also fence-sitters such as the DMK, the BJD, the YSR and BRS which account for eight, five, four and five seats, respectively, in the Upper House.