2026 will be a year of electoral activity…, Elections to be held in 4 states and for 75 Rajya Sabha seats

New Delhi. The new year 2026 is going to be full of electoral activity. A major change could also occur in the upper house of Parliament in 2026. Next year, while assembly elections are to be held in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Assam, elections will also be held for approximately 75 seats in the Rajya Sabha. These seats will become vacant in April, June, and November. After this, it remains to be seen what the equation will be between the NDA and the INDIA alliance in the Rajya Sabha. In the coming time, five Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar and 10 from Uttar Pradesh will become vacant. In addition, seats from Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu, along with several northeastern states, will also become vacant.

Term of these prominent leaders is ending
The Rajya Sabha elections in 2026 will be of great importance. They will determine the future legislative agenda of Parliament. Among the prominent leaders whose terms are ending in 2026 are Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Digvijay Singh, Sharad Pawar, and Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, B.L. Verma, Ravneet Singh Bittu, and George Kurian. It cannot be said at this point how many of these leaders will return to the House and how many will be replaced by new faces.

From April to June, and then in November, five seats from Bihar will become vacant. These seats will become vacant in April itself. In addition, the terms of MPs from Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu are also ending. Seats from Uttar Pradesh will also become vacant in November. Several seats from Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh will also become vacant.

Currently, the NDA has 129 seats in the Rajya Sabha. The opposition parties have only 78 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. The elections in 2026 could also balance the power in the Rajya Sabha. In addition, the upcoming assembly elections will also bring about changes in the strategies of political parties. All five Rajya Sabha seats from Bihar will fall vacant on April 9th. The terms of RJD’s Prem Chand Gupta and Amarendra Dhari Singh, JDU’s Harivansh Narayan Singh and Union Minister Ramnath Thakur, along with Upendra Kushwaha, are ending in April.

Following the NDA’s resounding victory in the Bihar assembly elections, it is likely that the BJP and JDU will each secure two seats. Besides Upendra Kushwaha, some other leaders may also return to the Upper House. Elections for seven Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra are also expected in April. The terms of Sharad Pawar, Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale are coming to an end.