Rajya Sabha elections were held in 2018 to elect the 65 retiring members of the Rajya Sabha, Indian Parliament's upper chamber. There were, as routine, three such elections held among relevant State and Union Territory legislators by single transferable vote (STV) and Open Ballot: on 16 January to elect 3 members from Delhi and 1 member from Sikkim; on 23 March to elect 58 members from 16 States; and lastly on 21 June to elect 3 members from Kerala. Being even-numbered, 2018 was a year in which about 30% of the State Legislature-elected 233-seat component of the body is elected. The other 12 seats of the body are appointed by the President.
Not as part of a six-yearly cycle, a by-election was held to elect 1 member from Kerala in March, which proved to be a re-election but as an independent member, of M. P. Veerendra Kumar, the only by-election of the year. This was the first time a Non-Congress party became the Largest Party in the Upper House.
Elections The elections were held to elect 3 members from National Capital Territory of Delhi and 1 member from Sikkim. 3 members from the National Capital Territory of Delhi retired on 27 January 2018 and 1 member from Sikkim retired on 23 February 2018. Elections for 58 seats and a by-election for 1 seat were held on 23 March 2018. The election was held for 3 seats of Kerala on 21 June 2018. State Members retiring Date of retirement Delhi327 January 2018 Sikkim123 February 2018 Andhra Pradesh32 April 2018 Bihar62 April 2018 Chhattisgarh12 April 2018 Gujarat42 April 2018 Haryana12 April 2018 Himachal Pradesh12 April 2018 Karnataka42 April 2018 Madhya Pradesh52 April 2018 Maharashtra62 April 2018 Telangana32 April 2018 Uttar Pradesh102 April 2018 Uttarakhand12 April 2018 West Bengal52 April 2018 Odisha33 April 2018 Rajasthan33 April 2018 Jharkhand23 May 2018 Kerala31 July 2018 Nominated 4 14 July 2018
Members Elected
National Capital Territory of Delhi Delhi had an election for 3 Rajya Sabha seats on 16 January 2018 to replace members retiring on 27 January 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Karan Singh INC Sanjay Singh AAP 2 Parvez Hashmi Sushil Gupta 3 Janardan Dwivedi N. D. Gupta
Sikkim Sikkim had an election for 1 Rajya Sabha seat on 16 January 2018 to replace member retiring on 23 February 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Hishey Lachungpa SDF Hishey Lachungpa SDF
Andhra Pradesh From Andhra Pradesh State, 3 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Tulla Devender Goud TDP C. M. Ramesh TDP 2 Renuka Chowdhury INC Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar 3 Chiranjeevi Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy YSRCP
Bihar From Bihar State, 6 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Ravi Shankar Prasad BJP Ravi Shankar Prasad BJP 2 Dharmendra Pradhan Akhilesh Prasad SinghINC 3 Mahendra Prasad JD(U) Mahendra Prasad JD(U) 4 Bashistha Narain Singh Bashistha Narain Singh 5 Anil Kumar Sahani Ashfaque Karim RJD 6 Vacant (Ali Anwar) Manoj Jha
Chhattisgarh From Chhattisgarh State, 1 member is elected for the Rajya Sabha seat on 23 March 2018, to replace member retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Bhushan Lal Jangde BJP Saroj Pandey BJP
Gujarat From Gujarat State, 4 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Parshottam Rupala BJP Parshottam Rupala BJP 2 Mansukh L. Mandaviya Mansukh L. Mandaviya 3 Arun Jaitley Naranbhai RathwaINC 4 Shankarbhai Vegad Amee Yajnik
Haryana From Haryana State, 1 member is elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace member retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Shadi Lal Batra INC D.P. Vats BJP
Himachal Pradesh From Himachal Pradesh State, 1 member is elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace member retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Jagat Prakash Nadda BJP Jagat Prakash Nadda BJP
Jharkhand From Jharkhand State, 2 members are elected for the Rajya Sabha seats on 23 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 3 May 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Sanjiv Kumar JMM Sameer Oraon BJP 2 Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu INC Dhiraj Prasad Sahu INC
Karnataka From Karnataka State, 4 members are elected for the Rajya Sabha seats on 23 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 R Ramakrishna BJP Syed Naseer Hussain INC 2 Basavaraj Patil Sedam L. Hanumanthaiah 3 K. Rahman Khan INC G C Chandrasekhar 4 Vacant (Rajeev Chandrasekhar) Independent Rajeev Chandrasekhar BJP
Madhya Pradesh From Madhya Pradesh State, 5 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Satyavrat Chaturvedi INC Rajmani Patel INC 2 Meghraj Jain BJP Dharmendra Pradhan BJP 3 Prakash Javadekar Kailash Soni 4 La Ganesan Ajay Pratap Singh 5 Thawar Chand Gehlot Thawar Chand Gehlot
Maharashtra From Maharashtra State, 6 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Ajay Sancheti BJP Prakash Javadekar BJP 2 D. P. Tripathi NCP Narayan Rane 3 Rajeev Shukla INC V. Muraleedharan 4 Rajni Patil Kumar Ketkar INC 5 Vandana Chavan NCP Vandana Chavan NCP 6 Anil Desai SS Anil Desai SS
Odisha From Odisha State, 3 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 3 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Ananga Udaya Singh Deo BJD Prashanta Nanda BJD 2 Dilip Tirkey Achyuta Samanta 3 A V Swamy Independent Soumya Ranjan Patnaik
Rajasthan From Rajasthan State, 3 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 3 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Abhishek SinghviINC Kirodi Lal Meena BJP 2 Narendra Budania Madan Lal Saini 3 Bhupender Yadav BJP Bhupender Yadav
Telangana From Telangana State, 3 members are elected for the Rajya Sabha seats on 23 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 C. M. Ramesh TDP Joginapally Santosh Kumar TRS 2 Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar INC Badulgula Lingaiah Yadav 3 Vacant (P. Govardhan Reddy) Banda Prakash
Uttarakhand From Uttarakhand State, 1 member is elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 15 March 2018, to replace member retiring on 2 April 2018.
Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Mahendra Singh Mahra INC Anil Baluni BJP
Uttar Pradesh From Uttar Pradesh State, 10 members are elected for the Rajya Sabha seats on 23 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Previous MP Previous Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Jaya Bachchan SP Jaya Bachchan SP 2 Naresh Chandra Agrawal Arun Jaitley BJP 3 Alok Tiwari Anil Jain 4 Munvvar Saleem Ashok Bajpai 5 Darshan Singh Yadav Harnath Singh Yadav 6 Kiranmay Nanda Anil Agrawal 7 Munquad Ali BSP Sakal Deep Rajbhar 8 Vacant (Mayawati) Kanta Kardam 9 Pramod Tiwari INC G. V. L. Narasimha Rao 10 Vinay Katiyar BJP Vijaypal Singh Tomar
West Bengal From West Bengal State, 5 members are elected for the Rajya Sabha seats on 23 March 2018, to replace members retiring on 2 April 2018. Seat No Previous MP Previous Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Tapan Kumar Sen CPI(M) Abhishek SinghviINC 2 Nadimul Haque AITC Nadimul Haque AITC 3 Vivek Gupta Abir Biswas 4 Kunal Kumar Ghosh Santunu Sen 5 Vacant (Mukul Roy) Subhasish Chakraborty
Kerala From Kerala State, 3 members are elected unopposed for the Rajya Sabha seats on 14 June 2018, to replace members retiring on 1 July 2018. Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 C.P. Narayanan CPI(M) Elamaram Kareem CPI(M) 2 P. J. Kurien INC Binoy Viswam CPI 3 Joy Abraham KC(M) Jose K. Mani KC(M)
Nominated
Seat No Former MP Former Party Elected MP Elected Party Reference 1 Anu Aga Nominated Raghunath Mohapatra BJP 2 K. Parasaran Nominated Sonal Mansingh BJP 3 Rekha Nominated Ram Shakal BJP 4 Sachin Tendulkar Nominated Rakesh Sinha BJP
By-elections In addition to scheduled elections, unforeseen vacancies, caused by members' resignation, death or disqualification, may also be filled via By-elections. On 2 September 2017, Manohar Parrikar resigned from membership of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, due to his election as the member of Goa Legislative Assembly on 23 August by-poll.
Uttar Pradesh S.No Former MP Party Date of Vacancy Elected MP Party Date of appointment Date of retirement 1 Manohar Parrikar BJP 2 September 2017 Hardeep Singh Puri BJP 9 January 2018 25 November 2020
Kerala
On 20 December 2017, M. P. Veerendra Kumar resigned from Rajya Sabha due to disqualification of Sharad Yadav.
S.No Former MP Party Date of Vacancy Elected MP Party Date of appointment Date of retirement 1 M. P. Veerendra Kumar Janata Dal (United) 20 December 2017 M. P. Veerendra Kumar IND 24 March 2018 2 April 2022
Notes
References