2017 Rajya Sabha elections

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2017 Rajya Sabha elections
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  2016 21 July and 8 August 2017 2018  

15 seats to the Rajya Sabha [a]
 First partySecond party
 
The official photograph of the Defence Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley (cropped).jpg
Ghulam Nabi Azad at Healthcare Skill Summit 2013 (cropped).jpg
Leader Arun Jaitley Ghulam Nabi Azad
Party BJP INC
Alliance NDA UPA
Leader since2 June 20148 June 2014
Leader's seat Gujarat Jammu and Kashmir
Seats before5660
Seats after5858
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 2Decrease2.svg 2

 Third partyFourth party
 
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Yechuri 1.JPG
Leader Derek O'Brien Sitaram Yechury
Party AITC CPI(M)
Alliance Federal Front Left Front
Leader since19 August 2011August 2005
Leader's seat West Bengal West Bengal
Seats before128
Seats after137
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 1Decrease2.svg 1

Rajya Sabha election, 2017.svg

Elections were held in India on 21 July and 8 August 2017 as nomination contests by state legislators routinely for ten members of the Rajya Sabha across three states, replacing those who retired in July and August 2017. [1] The State Legislatures which contribute in this six-year minor elections/nomination cycle are Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal. The mechanism is the single transferable vote (STV) among legislators, meaning nominations may be unopposed contests (commonly in states with an absolute majority for a particular party in its legislative, public elections). The open ballot is used rather than secret ballot, allowing public scrutiny.

Contents

The year also saw five by-elections one of which saw a state's co-representative change, owing to a change in the make-up of the relevant legislature in the intervening three years.

The 2017 six-yearly cycle is of great importance to Goa, where its sole Rajya Sabha member is chosen by its current legislators; 3 of 11 members for Gujarat and 6 of 16 members are also so elected (see cross-party nomination contests) in this cycle.

The outcome in party terms, which tends to reflect the current popular political make-up of the relevant legislatures, was primarily no change (12 of the 15 seats involved in 2017). The other three seats to reflect state political changes were two intervening sufficient mathematical state gains in support for the VJP at state elections, at the expense of the INC entitling two VJP nominations rather than INC and one state gain in support (sufficient proportional representation swing) for the AITC which had cost the Communist Party of India (Marxist), specifically in West Bengal.

Members retiring

The following members retired in 2017.

StateRetiring MPPartyDate of retirementReference
Goa Shantaram Naik INC 28 July 2017 [1]
Gujarat Ahmed Patel INC 18 August 2017
Smriti Irani BJP
Dilip Pandya
West Bengal Sukhendu Sekhar Roy AITC
Derek O'Brien
Debabrata Bandyopadhyay
Dola Sen
Sitaram Yechury CPI(M)
Pradip Bhattacharya INC

Members elected

Goa

Goa's main party in its legislature saw its nomination contest for Goa's sole seat on July 21, 2017. [2]

Seat NoFormer MPFormer PartyElected MPElected PartyReference
1 Shantaram Naik INC Vinay Tendulkar BJP [3]

Gujarat

Gujarat had an election for 3 Rajya Sabha seats on August 8, 2017. [4]

Seat NoFormer MPFormer PartyElected MPElected PartyReference
1 Smriti Irani BJP Smriti Irani BJP
2 Dilip Pandya Amit Shah
3 Ahmed Patel INC Ahmed Patel INC

West Bengal

West Bengal had elected the 6 Rajya Sabha seat unopposed. [4]

Seat NoFormer MPFormer PartyElected MPElected PartyReference
1 Derek O'Brien AITC Derek O'Brien AITC [5]
2 Dola Sen Dola Sen
3 Sukhendu Sekhar Roy Sukhendu Sekhar Roy
4 Debabrata Bandyopadhyay Manas Bhunia
5 Sitaram Yechury CPI(M) Shanta Chhetri
6 Pradip Bhattacharya INC Pradip Bhattacharya INC

By-elections

In addition to scheduled elections, unforeseen vacancies, caused by members' resignation or death, may also be filled via By-elections.

West Bengal

S.NoFormer MPPartyDate of VacancyElected MPPartyDate of appointmentDate of retirement
1 Mithun Chakraborty All India Trinamool Congress 29 Dec 2016 Manish Gupta All India Trinamool Congress 2 March 20173 April 2020

Odisha

S.NoFormer MPPartyDate of VacancyElected MPPartyDate of appointmentDate of retirement
1 Bishnu Charan Das Biju Janata Dal 21 March 2017 Pratap Keshari Deb Biju Janata Dal 18 May 20171 July 2022

Manipur

S.NoFormer MPPartyDate of VacancyElected MPPartyDate of appointmentDate of retirement
1 Haji Abdul Salam Indian National Congress 28 February 2017 Bhabananda Singh Bharatiya Janata Party 25 May 20179 April 2020

Madhya Pradesh

S.NoFormer MPPartyDate of VacancyElected MPPartyDate of appointmentDate of retirement
1 Anil Madhav Dave Bharatiya Janata Party 30 June 2016 Sampatiya Uike Bharatiya Janata Party 1 August 201729 June 2022

Rajasthan

S.NoFormer MPPartyDate of VacancyElected MPPartyDate of appointmentDate of retirement
1 Venkaiah Naidu Bharatiya Janata Party 10 August 2017 Alphons Kannanthanam Bharatiya Janata Party 9 November 20174 July 2022

Notes

  1. Including 5 casual vacancies

References

  1. 1 2 "Statewise Retirement". 164.100.47.5. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  2. "Biennial Election to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) from Goa" (PDF). ECI New Delhi. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  3. Kamat, prakash (21 July 2017). "Vinay Tendulkar wins Goa RS seat". The Hindu. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Biennial Elections to the Council of States from the States of Gujarat and West Bengal and bye election to Council of States from Madhya Pradesh" (PDF). ECI, New Delhi. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  5. "Ten Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs in Gujarat, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh: Who are the candidates?". First Post. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  6. "Mithun Chakraborty Resigns From Rajya Sabha Citing Health Reasons". NDTV . 26 December 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Rajya Sabha bypoll in Manipur, Odisha on May 25". Hindustan Times . New Delhi. 3 May 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  8. "Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave passes away". The Hindu . 18 May 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  9. "When Venkaiah Naidu wanted to quit Rajya Sabha, BJP but Amit Shah stopped him" . Retrieved 11 August 2017.