Rajya Sabha Elections: Rules, Process & Differences from Lok Sabha Polls

About:

• The Council of States or the Rajya Sabha is the second half of the Indian parliament.
• Rajya Sabha consists of members which are directly elected form the state and union territory, and those nominated by the President of India.
• The Vice-President of India works as the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
• According to the provisions of the Rajya Sabha members can choose deputy Chairman among themselves.
• As for the most part, the Rajya Sabha has got the sittings headed either by the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman.

Constitutional Provisions :

As has already been observed, it is in the constitutional provisions especially those made for the Rajya Sabha where the federal features of the Constitution are to be sought.

• From Article 80 of the Constitution, it is clear that the Rajya Sabha can be composed of at most 250 members with 12 appointed by the President, and the rest which is 238 representing states, and the Union territories.
• There are 245 members in Rajya Sabha at the present, out of them, 233 are nominated from the states and the union territories of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir, and the rest 12 members are nominated by the president.
• The President appointees who has specialized knowledge or practical experience or specialization in areas like literature, science, art, and social work.

Seat Allocation:

• With regards to the method of apportionment of the states and union territories in the Rajya Sabha, this is provided under the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution. There are also facts that the number of seats is determined depending on the population number of the state. From 1952 to present, the amount of elected seats for States and Union Territories in Rajya Sabha can change for more or less because of state reformation and the formation of new states.

Eligibility and Qualification:

Article 84 of the Constitution lays down the category of persons eligible to be members of Parliament as:

1. He shall be a citizen of India and must take and subscribe an oath or an affirmation in the manner required by the Third Schedule to the Constitution before a person in authority that is the Election Commissioner or any person appointed on its behalf by the election commission.
2. The candidate must be at least 30 years old and any other criteria if any, must be fulfilled as may be provided by Parliament.

Disqualification:

Under Article 102 of the Constitution, persons shall not be qualified to be members of either House of Parliament.

1. if he holds or becomes a member of any profit earning office under the Government of India or the Government of any State, save and except any office which Parliament may, by law, specify as not attracting disqualification for membership.
2. If he becomes of unsound mind and is deemed by a court of law to be so;
3. In the case of an undischarged insolvent;
4. Has not obtained any other countries citizenship or renounced his citizenship of the India.
5. If disqualified, by the laws made by the Parliament in regard of elections.

Peculiar rules:

• The Rajya Sabha consists of 245 members and these particular elections have certain regulations.
1. For example, any writing which has been made on the ballot paper other than by the violet sketch pen which has been supplied to the returning officer is prohibited.
2. For example, 14 votes which were required to cast their votes for RK Anand, congress supported contestant in the Haryana Rajya Sabha election were disqualified for using black ink instead of blue ink.
• Power of decision of polls is vested in the state assemblies not in Rajya Sabha
• However, the NDA administration felt the heat of corruption during the secret balloting specifically in the year 1998, stated for an open ballot. This involves the parliamentarian presenting his/her ballot to an approved party agent before putting it in the box.

Process for Election/Nomination

• In the Lok Sabha elections members are directly elected by the people of India whereas in Rajya Sabha members are indirectly elected through a proportional representation with Single Transferable Vote (STV). In this system, a power of voting depends on the population of a particular MLA’s constituency.
• For one to be elected, he or she must secure a certain number of votes which is referred to as quotas. The quota is obtained by getting the quotient of the total of valid votes by the number of seat plus one. For the large number of seats, the starting point is arrived at from the total number of MLAs hence 1 MLA equals 100 votes.

Electoral College:

• The representatives are chosen by the members of the State Legislative Assembly in the case of each state, and by members of the Union Territory’s Electoral College in the case of the territories, through the Proportional Representation method using the Single Transferable Vote.
• The National Capital Territory of Delhi has an appointed number of members in the Delhi Legislative Assembly forming the Electoral College for the purpose while for Puducherry & Jammu & Kashmir it is the elected members of the respective Legislative Assemblies.

Bye Elections:

• Rajya Sabha is a Permanent House of parliament and it cannot be dissolved like the lower house of parliament. But one-third of the Rajya Sabha members retiring after every two years.
• A member, who gets elected for a full term, holds the post for six years after which he or she retires from the Rajya Sabha.
• 'Bye-election' simply means election where a member is replaced due to a reason other than decision to quit in order to retire. A member elected in a bye-election works only for the remaining period of the term for which the member who resigned, died or was disqualified under the Tenth Schedule vacated the seat.

How it is different from Lok Sabha polls

Relation between the two Houses:

• The principle of collective responsibility means that according to Article 75(3) of the Constitution, the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of People (Lok Sabha) this shows that Rajya Sabha cannot form / dissolve any government. It can, however, control the government and that job intensifies when the government lacks majority in the Rajya Sabha.
• In case of a deadlock in both houses, the Constitution provides for the concurring of both the Houses of Parliament. As a matter of fact, there are historical precedents which prove that on three occasions in the history the Houses of Parliament have come together in a single session to address some disputes.
• The joint sitting is chaired by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
• But in respect of Money Bill, there is no provision of joining both Houses as again it is more evident that when it comes to financial matters Lok Sabha has more dominance over the Rajya Sabha.
• Constitution Amendment Bill has to be passed in both the Houses and it has to be passed with a specified majority as the Article 368 of the constitution stipulates.
• As it has been mentioned before there is no mechanism of resolving a deadlock between the two houses concerning the Constitution Amendment Bill.
• Proclamation of Emergency,election of the President, the election of the Vice- President, the proclamation of the breakdown of the constitutional structure of the States and the declaration of a financial emergency are the matters where both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha works Together.
• The responsibility of Both Houses is also equally distributed in terms of receiving reports and files from various statutory authorities, etc.