Election Of Members Of Rajya Sabha
The Council of States shall be composed of not more than 250 members, of whom 12 shall be nominated by the President and the remainder 238 shall be representatives of the States and the Union Territories elected by the method of indirect election [A-80].
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The 12 nominated members shall be chosen by the President from amongst persons having special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art, and social service’. The Constitution thus adopts the principle of nomination for giving distinguished persons a place in the upper Chamber.
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The representatives of each State shall be elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the State in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
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The representatives of the Union Territories shall be chosen in such manner as Parliament may prescribe [A-80 (5)]. Under this power Parliament has prescribed “that the representatives of Union Territories to the Council of States shall be indirectly elected by members of an electoral college for that territory, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
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Open ballot voting applies in election to Council of States only. Every political party which has its member(s) as MLAs can appoint an authorized agent to verify as to whom its members have voted. The authorized agent will be seated inside the polling station in seats provided by the R.O. In case of MLAs who are members of political parties, after they mark the vote and before inserting the ballot box, are required to show the marked ballot paper to the authorized agent of their party.