• As many as 68 Rajya Sabha members, including nine Union ministers, are completing their tenures in 2024. 

• Of the 68 vacancies, elections have already been called for three seats in Delhi where AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Narain Dass Gupta and Sushil Kumar Gupta will complete their tenures on January 27.

• Elections have also been called for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Sikkim where SDF member Hishey Lachungpa will retire on February 23.

• As many as 57 leaders, including Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, Health Minister Mansukh Madaviya and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will complete their tenures in April.

• Uttar Pradesh will have the highest number of vacancies of 10 seats, followed by Maharashtra and Bihar (six each), Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal (five each), Karnataka and Gujarat (four each), Odisha, Telangana, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh (three each), Jharkhand and Rajasthan (two each), and Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Chhattisgarh (one each). 

• Four nominated members are retiring in July.

Members of Rajya Sabha

• 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 also of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry.

• The members nominated by the President are persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service.

• Rajya Sabha is a permanent House and is not subject to dissolution. However, one-third of members of Rajya Sabha retire after every second year. 

• A member who is elected/nominated for a full term serves for a period of six years. 

• Article 84 of the Constitution lays down the qualifications for membership of Parliament. 

• The member should be a citizen of India above 30 years of age and possessing such other qualifications as may be prescribed by law of Parliament.

• The election held to fill a vacancy arising otherwise than by retirement of a member on the expiration of his term of office is called ‘bye-election’. 

• Members of Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of the Assemblies of states and Union Territories in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

• While the nominated members of Rajya Sabha have a right to vote in the election of the Vice-President of India, they are not entitled to vote in the election of the President of India.

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