Context:

Elections for more than 70 Rajya Sabha seats will be held this year with 69 members set to retire.

About

• Rajya Sabha is a permanent body and is not subject to dissolution
• The Vice President of India is the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

Composition:

• • Article 80 of the Constitution lays down the maximum strength of Rajya Sabha as 250, out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and the two Union Territories.
  • The Rajya Sabha currently has 245 members including:
  • 233 elected members and 12 nominated
  • Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are picked by the President of India. These MPs are luminaries from the world of economics, sports, literature, art, social service, etc.
  • The Vice-President is the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

Tenure:

• • Every Rajya Sabha MP has a tenure of six years and elections to one-third of seats are held every two years.
  • According to Section 154 of the Representation of the People Act 1951, a member who has chosen to fill a casual vacancy will serve for the remainder of his predecessor’s term of office.

Allocation of Seats

The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution provides for the allocation of seats to the States and Union Territories in Rajya Sabha, depending on its population.

Qualifications

• Article 84 of the Constitution lays down the qualifications for membership of Parliament. A person to be qualified for the membership of the Rajya Sabha should possess the following qualifications:
• He must be a citizen of India and make and subscribe before some person authorized in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule to the Constitution;
• He must be not less than 30 years of age;
• He must possess such other qualifications as may be prescribed on that behalf by or under any law made by Parliament.