Number of Rajya Sabha Seats in India

Number of Rajya Sabha Seats in India: The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the Upper House of the Parliament of India. Membership is limited to 250 members, and the present Rajya Sabha has 245 members. Rajya Sabha is made by representation from all the States and the Union Territories and also the members nominated by the President of India.

In this article, you will learn about the number of Rajya Sabha seats in India, along with the state-wise list, and other important information about Rajya Sabha.

Number of Rajya Sabha Seats in India

The present maximum sanctioned strength of the Rajya Sabha in the Constitution of India is 250 where 238 members are the representatives from all the States and Union Territories, and 12 members are nominated by the President.

The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that is not subjected to dissolution. But, one-third of its members retire every second year, and newly elected members replace them. Each member of the Rajya Sabha has a term of six years and the Vice President of India is the Chairman of Rajya Sabha who is elected by the members from the office itself.

The House also elects a Deputy Chairman from among its members. Other than these two, there is also a group of Vice Chairmen in the Rajya Sabha, and the senior minister who is also a member of the Rajya Sabha gets appointed by the Prime Minister as the Leader of the House.

Number of Rajya Sabha Seats in India State-Wise

The distribution of Rajya Sabha seats across all states and union territories is as follows:

State/Union Territory	Number of Seats
Andhra Pradesh	11
Arunachal Pradesh	1
Assam	7
Bihar	16
Chhattisgarh	5
Goa	1
Gujarat	11
Haryana	5
Himanchal Pradesh	3
Jharkhand	6
Karnataka	12
Kerala	9
Madhya Pradesh	11
Maharashtra	19
Manipur	1
Meghalaya	1
Mizoram	1
Nagaland	1
National Capital Territory of Delhi	3
Odisha	10
Puducherry	1
Punjab	7
Rajasthan	9
Sikkim	1
Tamil Nadu	18
Telangana	7
Tripura	1
Uttar Pradesh	21
Uttarakhand	3
West Bengal	16

Maximum Rajya Sabha Seats in India

A maximum of 250 members can make up the Rajya Sabha with 238 representatives elected from all the 28 States and the 8 Union Territories legislatures, while the President appoints the remaining 12 nominated members.

How are Rajya Sabha Members Elected?

Rajya Sabha members are not directly elected by the public but these people are elected by the elected members of the state legislative assemblies and the whole election method is a proportional representation by the means of a single transferable vote in which each state or union territory has a different number of seats in the Rajya Sabha. Depending upon its population, there are 12 members that are nominated by the President of India from different fields like art, literature, science and social services.

Qualifications for Members of the Rajya Sabha

For any person to become the member of the Rajya Sabha must pass the following eligibility criteria which was predefined by the government and these are also according to the 84th Article of the constitution and the Representation of People Act of 1951. Some of those criterias are as follows:

• They must be have the citizenship of India
• They must be of at least 30 years in age
• They must be an elector in any state or union territory
• They must not hold any office of profit under the central or state government
• They must not be disqualified by any law or the constitution.

Comparison of Rajya Sabha Seat Allocation with Lok Sabha

The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body in which one-third of its members retire every two years but in the Lok Sabha seats are divided using the method of first- system and is given to the candidate who has collected the highest number of votes will win. Rajya Sabha members can serve the nation for a maximum of five years in the Lok Sabha unless they resigned or died before.

Both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha have equal power in the parliament and in most cases more power is given to Lok Sabha like issues related to money bills and financial problems. Sometimes if there is a condition where the two houses which are Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cannot agree then a joint session is called and the Lok Sabha will have a greater power.

Summary – Number of Rajya Sabha Seats in India

The Upper House of the Indian Parliament is the Rajya Sabha and this contains around 250 members from which 238 members from all the states and union territories and 12 members nominated by the President. The Vice-President of India is the head of the Rajya Sabha and during any health problem of the Vice-President it is the responsibility of the Deputy Chairman to take control. Each member of the Rajya Sabha can serve the nation for maximum upto six years and the Rajya Sabha people are indirectly elected by the elected members of the states and union territories’ government.

People who want to become a member of the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha must follow certain eligibility criterias which are like Person must be an Indian citizen and his or her must have at least 30 years of age. There are other criterias as well that a person must follow from the above blog.

FAQs on Number of Rajya Sabha Seats State Wise

1. Are there any educational qualifications needed to become a member of the Rajya Sabha?

No, people don’t need any particular educational qualification to become a member of the Rajya Sabha.

2. How many members are there in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha?

Only 250 members are there in the Rajya Sabha from which 238 members are elected by states and union territories government bodies and 12 members are nominated by the President of the country. And there are 552 members in the Lok Sabha in which 530 are elected by the people of the states and 20 are elected by the people of the union territories and also 2 members are nominated.

3. How many members represent Delhi in the Rajya Sabha?

The National Capital Territory of Delhi is represented by 3 members in the Rajya Sabha.

4. How many Rajya Sabha seats are from UP?

There are 21 Rajya Sabha seats from UP.