Elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats on November 9; BJP to surge up to 10 seats in UP

IT Correspondent
New Delhi, October 14:
The election to 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and one in Uttarakhand, falling vacant next month, will be held on 9 November, the poll panel announced on Tuesday. 
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav are among the 10 members from Uttar Pradesh retiring on 25 November. Actor-politician Raj Babbar’s term as Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand also ends on 25 November. 11 seats of Rajya Sabha will be vacant in November due to the completion of the term of the members. 
The official statement further said that “chief electoral officers as observers in the two states” have been appointed, and the chief secretaries of the two states have been directed to “depute a senior officer to ensure the instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are compiled with while making arrangements for conducting the elections.”
The last date for filing nominations is 27 October and 2 November is the last day of withdrawal of candidature. The voting will take place on 9 November and the results will be announced on 11 November. 
In Uttar Pradesh, the candidate will be required to garner 37 votes. In the UP assembly the BJP has 306 MLAs (with support of 9 Apna Dal and 3 Independent MLAs), Samajwadi Party-48 MLAs, Congress-07 MLAs, BSP-18 MLAs and Om Prakash Rajbhar- 04 MLAs. Out of 395 UP assembly seats, eight are vacant. But rajya sabha elections are being held before assembly by-polls.  
In Uttar Pradesh, BJP can win 8 seats. It can also secure the 9 th seat, if it gets surplus votes. Samajwadi Party can get one seat. BSP and Congress cannot get a single RS seat on own strength in Rajya Sabha elections. 
In the 245 member Rajya Sabha, NDA has the strength of nearly 100 members. It includes: BJP-85, JD(U)-05, BPF-01,RPI-01, NPF-01,MNF-01, nominated members-07. Besides  09 AIDMK members are with NDA. If BJP wins 10 seats on this RS elections, NDA’s strength could go up to 120 by ensuing monsoon session of the Parliament.