2017 Indian Rajya Sabha elections

Rajya Sabha 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.

2017 Rajya Sabha elections

21 July and 8 August 2017
10 seats to the Rajya Sabha
Leader Arun Jaitley Ghulam Nabi Azad Party BJP INC Alliance NDA UPA Leader since 2 June 2014 8 June 2014 Leader's seat Gujarat Jammu and Kashmir Seats before 56 60 Seats after 58 58 Seat change 2 2   Leader Derek O'Brien Sitaram Yechury Party AITC CPI (M) Alliance Federal Front Left Front Leader since 19 August 2011 August 2005 Leader's seat West Bengal West Bengal Seats before 12 8 Seats after 13 7 Seat change 1 1

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.

State	Retiring MP	Party		Date of retirement	Reference
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 No	Former MP	Former Party		Elected MP	Elected Party		Reference
1	Shantaram Naik		INC	Vinay Tendulkar		BJP	[3]

Gujarat

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

Seat No	Former MP	Former Party		Elected MP	Elected Party		Reference
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 No	Former MP	Former Party		Elected MP	Elected Party		Reference
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

• On 29 December 2016, Mithun Chakraborty, a Trinamool Congress member from West Bengal, resigned his seat, citing health reasons.[6]

S.No	Former MP	Party		Date of Vacancy	Elected MP	Party		Date of appointment	Date of retirement
1	Mithun Chakraborty		All India Trinamool Congress	29 Dec 2016	Manish Gupta		All India Trinamool Congress	2 March 2017	3 April 2020

Odisha

• On 21 March 2017, Bishnu Charan Das of Odisha resigned after he was appointed as Deputy Chairman of Odisha State Planning Board.[7]

S.No	Former MP	Party		Date of Vacancy	Elected MP	Party		Date of appointment	Date of retirement
1	Bishnu Charan Das		Biju Janata Dal	21 March 2017	Pratap Keshari Deb		Biju Janata Dal	18 May 2017	1 July 2022

Manipur

• On 28 February 2017, Manipur representative Haji Abdul Salam died.[7]

S.No	Former MP	Party		Date of Vacancy	Elected MP	Party		Date of appointment	Date of retirement
1	Haji Abdul Salam		Indian National Congress	28 February 2017	Bhabananda Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	25 May 2017	9 April 2020

Madhya Pradesh

• On 18 May 2017, Anil Madhav Dave, a Bharatiya Janata Party member from Madhya Pradesh died.[8]

S.No	Former MP	Party		Date of Vacancy	Elected MP	Party		Date of appointment	Date of retirement
1	Anil Madhav Dave		Bharatiya Janata Party	30 June 2016	Sampatiya Uike		Bharatiya Janata Party	1 August 2017	29 June 2022

Rajasthan

• On 10 August 2017, Venkaiah Naidu's resigned from membership of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, due to his election as the Vice President of India.[9]

S.No	Former MP	Party		Date of Vacancy	Elected MP	Party		Date of appointment	Date of retirement
1	Venkaiah Naidu		Bharatiya Janata Party	10 August 2017	Alphons Kannanthanam		Bharatiya Janata Party	9 November 2017	4 July 2022

References

1. "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. "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. "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.