Explained | The upcoming Rajya Sabha elections to 57 seats in 15 states

The story so far: While 41 candidates have been elected unopposed out of the 57 Rajya Sabha seats up for election across 15 states, a contest for 16 remaining would still be witnessed on June 10 in Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, where parties have fielded more nominees than their legislative strength in the State Assemblies. In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress demanded that an FIR be registered against BJP backed independent Independent candidate and media baron Subhash Chandra and BJP leaders for alleged horse-trading attempts while the BJP wrote to the Election Commission and Enforcement Directorate expressing apprehensions about possible horse-trading and use of black money in the upcoming Rajya Sabha election in Rajasthan, where voting for four seats will take place on June 10. While Congress is well placed to secure two wins as it has a majority of 108 seats in the 200-member Legislative Assembly, where one candidate requires 41 first preference votes to win, It has announced the names of three candidates— the party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, and members Mukul Wasnik and Pramod Tiwari. The results were in line with projections as eight BJP candidates were elected unopposed to the Upper House- former MLA Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal, who had left his Gorakhpur Urban constituency for Yogi Adityanath to contest in the recent Assembly polls; BJP’s OBC Morcha national president K Laxman; Shahjanpur Dalit leader Mithilesh Kumar; former State unit chief Laxmikant Vajpayee, sitting Rajya Sabha MP Surendra Singh Nagar, UP Backward Classes Finance Commission chairman Baburam Nishad, former state head of the women wing Darshana Singh, and former party MLA Sangeeta Yadav. In Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress had enough lawmakers to win one seat, sitting member Vivek Tankha was elected unopposed while BJP candidates- the party’s State General Secretary Kavita Patidar and Jabalpur Municipal Councillor Sumitra Valmiki, won the other two seats.