Rajya Sabha polls 2018: All you need to know about Upper House elections

The voting for 25 Rajya Sabha seats has begun. Among the states where polling is underway are: Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Telangana, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. The voting will continue till 4 pm and counting of votes will be taken up at 5 pm. In 245-member Rajya Sabha, 58 seats were vacant this year. However, 33 candidates from 10 states were elected unopposed on March 15.

Uttar Pradesh has a total of 31 Rajya Sabha seats. Currently, the election is happening for 10 seats and the BJP is assured of victory on eight seats. To secure a win in this election, a candidate needs 37 first preference votes. The BJP and its allies have 324 MLAs in the 403-member UP Assembly. The saffaron party can easily snatch eight of the 10 seats and will still be left with 28 surplus votes.

The BJP candidates in the fray from UP are Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narasimha Rao and Anil Kumar Agarwal.  Presently, the BJP has 58 Rajya Sabha MPs.

The Samajwadi Party, which has 47 MLAs, has fielded Jaya Bachchan and will be left with 10 surplus votes. The BSP, with 19 MLAs, has fielded Bhimrao Ambedkar. The BSP still needs 18 more votes in order to ensure victory of its candidate. Reports says Mayawati has sought a list of SP's loyal MLAs who will vote for her party candidate. She is also banking on some independent MLAs.

The opposition parties are making all out efforts to ensure that their every single MLA vote in favour of the candidates fielded by the SP and the BSP. The BJP suffered a stunning defeat in  Gorakhpur and Phulpur after the Bahujan Samaj Party joined hands with the Samajwadi Party.

In West Bengal, six candidates are in fray for five seats. Congress has fielded party spokesperson and senior Supreme Court lawyer Abhisek Manu Singhvi. Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has named four candidates and announced support for the Congress' Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

In Karnataka, four seats are vacant for which five candidates are contesting.  The state's ruling Congress has fielded three candidates, while there are one each of the BJP and JD(S). Elections are also underway for two seats in Jharkhand where three candidates are in the fray, including two of the state's ruling BJP and one of the Congress.

In Chhattisgarh, BJP and Congress both have fielded their candidates for a single Rajya Sabha seat. However, the BJP has 49 MLAs and it is likely to secure the seat.

(With inputs from PTI)