Rajya Sabha elections set to be a thriller

Rajya Sabha elections set to be a thriller

Concept:

• A third of Members of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha (which is a permanent House and is not subject to dissolution), from each State retire once in two years and polls are held to fill up the vacancies.
• Only elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies can vote in a Rajya Sabha election.
• In addition, vacancies that arise due to resignation, death or disqualification are filled up through bypolls after which those elected serve out the remainder of their predecessors’ term.
• Voting is by single transferable vote, as the election is held on the principle of proportional representation.
• The Rajya Sabha polls have a system of open ballot, but it is a limited form of openness.
• As a measure to check rampant crossvoting, which was taken to mean that the vote had been purchased by corrupt means, the system of each party MLA showing his or her marked ballots to the party’s authorised agent, before they are put into the ballot box, has been introduced.
• Showing a marked ballot to anyone other than one’s own party’s authorised agent will render the vote invalid. Not showing the ballot to the authorised agent will also mean that the vote cannot be counted.
• And independent candidates are barred from showing their ballots to anyone.
• The Supreme Court, while declining to interfere with the open ballot system, ruled that not voting for the party candidate will not attract disqualification under the anti-defection law.
• In 2018, the Supreme Court of India struck down the provision, holding that the ‘none of the above’ option is only for general elections held on the basis of universal adult suffrage, and cannot be applied to indirect elections based on proportional representation.