Explained: How votes for Rajya Sabha elections are calculated

On March 16, the Assemblies of ten states will elect 37 MPs to Rajya Sabha. This time, the most prominent contestant is JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar who, in a surprise move, has decided to step down as Bihar chief minister after a 21-year tenure. Another major leader contesting from Bihar is BJP chief Nitin Nabin.

What is the process for conducting the Rajya Sabha election and how are the votes counted?

How are Rajya Sabha members elected?

Rajya Sabha has up to 250 members, 12 of whom are nominated for their special knowledge of literature, science, art or social service. The others are elected.

Unlike Lok Sabha, whose members are directly elected by citizens aged 18 and above, Rajya Sabha members are elected by state Assembly members through the system of proportional representation by a single, transferable vote.

Rajya Sabha MPs representing Delhi and Puducherry are elected by members of an electoral college comprising the MLAs of these Union territories. The Union territories of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Chandigarh, and Ladakh do not have representation in Rajya Sabha. Jammu & Kashmir, however, does.

Who can be a Rajya Sabha MP?

The minimum age to be a Rajya Sabha MP is 30. Also, a person qualified to be chosen as a representative of any State or Union territory must be an elector for a parliamentary constituency in that State or territory, say MN Kaul and SL Shakdher in their book Practice and Procedure of Parliament.

The term of a Rajya Sabha member is six years, and one-third of the members retire every two years. This ensures continuity, as Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that is never dissolved, unlike the Lok Sabha.

How does the election process take off?

For filling the seats of members retiring from Rajya Sabha on the expiration of their term, the President, “by one or more notifications published in the Gazette on such date or dates as may be recommended by the Election Commission, calls upon the elected members of the Legislative Assembly or, as the case may be, the members of the electoral college of the State concerned to elect members of the Rajya Sabha in accordance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and of the rules and orders made thereunder,” say Kaul and Shakdher.

“…The Returning Officer fixes, with the previous approval of the Election Commission, the place at which the poll is to be taken for such election and notifies the place so fixed in such manner as the Election Commission may direct. The Returning Officer also presides over such an election at the place so fixed and appoints such polling officer or officers to assist him as he thinks necessary…”

How many votes does a candidate need to win an election?

This depends on the strength of the Assembly of the state concerned. States with high populations have more seats and states with smaller populations have fewer seats.

A formula is used to calculate the quota required for a candidate to win. The total number of MLAs voting in a state is divided by the number of seats going for elections plus 1. Then, 1 is added to the resulting number to calculate the quota. Let’s understand this with the help of an example.

Say the total number of MLAs voting in a state is 200 and elections are on for four seats.

In that case, 200 will be divided by 4+1, or 5, which will result in a figure of 40.

The quota thus will be 40+1, or 41. Any candidate getting 41 votes will be declared elected.

However, the system followed is that of a single transferable vote. So MLAs who vote — there is an open ballot in Rajya Sabha polls — can mark their first, second, third, etc preferences.

In the above example, every candidate getting 41 first preference votes will be declared elected.

If this does not fill all the seats, the surplus votes of those already elected are transferred to the second preference candidates of MLAs whose first preferences have already won.

So, let’s go back to the above example where 41 is the winning quota.

If a winning candidate secures 45 votes, this would mean this candidate has four surplus votes. These four surplus votes will be moved to the second preference candidates.

If more than one victorious candidate has surplus votes, the largest surplus will be transferred first.

If even this does not fill all vacancies, the candidate with the lowest number of first preference votes is eliminated, and the second preference votes in her ballot paper are transferred.

This process goes on until all seats are filled.

How do parties try to ensure they get as many seats as possible?

A party first calculates the quota required to win a seat. Then it counts its MLAs.

So, if it has 100 MLAs and the quota is 41, it will tell each of its MLAs which candidate to vote for in such a manner that 82 MLAs ensure the victory of two candidates.

Its third candidate will get 18 first preference votes and is unlikely to win. But even here, parties try to ensure cross-voting, or to convince independents or smaller parties to vote for candidates who cannot win only by means of first preference votes.

They also try to prevent cross-voting by their own MLAs. For this, since 2003, there has been an open ballot system wherein all party MLAs must show their ballot papers to authorised agents of their parties. Else, their vote will become invalid. This ensures that there is fear of party action by any MLA seeking to cross-vote. Independent MLAs do not show their ballot papers to anyone.

Vikas Pathak is deputy associate editor with The Indian Express and writes on national politics. He has over 17 years of experience, and has worked earlier with The Hindustan Times and The Hindu, among other publications. He has covered the national BJP, some key central ministries and Parliament for years, and has covered the 2009 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and many state assembly polls. He has interviewed many Union ministers and Chief Ministers. Vikas has taught as a full-time faculty member at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai; Symbiosis International University, Pune; Jio Institute, Navi Mumbai; and as a guest professor at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Vikas has authored a book, Contesting Nationalisms: Hinduism, Secularism and Untouchability in Colonial Punjab (Primus, 2018), which has been widely reviewed by top academic journals and leading newspapers. He did his PhD, M Phil and MA from JNU, New Delhi, was Student of the Year (2005-06) at ACJ and gold medalist from University Rajasthan College in Jaipur in graduation. He has been invited to top academic institutions like JNU, St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and IIT Delhi as a guest speaker/panellist. ... Read More