New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir will continue to have no representation in the Rajya Sabha during the upcoming vice presidential election on September 9, as all four seats from the Union Territory remain vacant.
The vacancies persist nearly 10 months after Assembly elections were held in J&K, with the Election Commission yet to conduct biennial polls to fill them. Rajya Sabha members are elected by MLAs of their respective states, and J&K has been unrepresented in the Upper House since February 2021, when the terms of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Nazir Ahmed Laway, Fayaz Ahmed Mir, and Shamsher Singh Manhas expired.
The vice president is chosen by members of both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, with nominated members of the Upper House also eligible to vote. Currently, there are no nominated members in the Lok Sabha. The 543-member Lok Sabha has one vacancy — Basirhat in West Bengal — while the 245-member Rajya Sabha has six, including four from J&K, one from Punjab (vacated by AAP’s Sanjeev Arora after his election to the state Assembly), and one from Jharkhand (following the death of JMM leader Shibu Soren).
With the combined effective strength of both Houses at 781, a winning candidate will need 391 votes, assuming full participation. The BJP-led NDA holds 293 of the 542 Lok Sabha seats and enjoys the support of 129 members in the 240-strong Rajya Sabha, giving it an estimated total of 422 votes.
The election follows the resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21 due to health reasons, ahead of the end of his term in August 2027.
Under Article 66(1) of the Constitution, the vice president is elected through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, with voting conducted by secret ballot. The position, the country’s second-highest constitutional office, carries a five-year term, but the incumbent can remain until a successor assumes charge.
