The composition of Rajya Sabha and method of election of its members:
1. Rajya Sabha is Upper House of the Parliament. It represents the States of India.
2. Rajya Sabha or the Upper House of the Parliament is a permanent body as it cannot be dissolved.
3. The membership of the Rajya Sabha cannot exceed 250.
4. Out of these, the President nominates 12 members on the basis of their excellence in literature, science, art and social service and the rest are elected. At present its total membership is 245.
5. Rajya Sabha is the body of States in Indian Union. The elected members of the States' Legislative Assemblies elect the members of the Rajya Sabha on the basis of proportional representation through the single transferable vote system.
6. But all the States do not send equal number of members to the Rajya Sabha. Their representation is decided on the basis of population of respective States. Thus the bigger State gets bigger representation and the smaller ones have lesser representation.
7. While the big State like UP has been assigned 31 seats, the smaller states like Sikkim and Tripura send only one member each.
8. Delhi Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) elects three members of Rajya Sabha and Pondicherry sends one member. Other Union Territories are not represented in the Rajya Sabha.
9. Every member of Rajya Sabha enjoys a safe tenure of six years. One third of its members retire after every two years. They are entitled to contest again for the membership.
10. But a member elected against a midterm vacancy serves the remaining period only. This system of election ensures continuity in the working of Rajya Sabha.
11.The Vice-President of India is the ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. He presides over the meetings of Rajya Sabha. In his absence the Deputy Chairman, who is elected by its members from amongst themselves, presides over the meeting of the House.
12. The Deputy Chairman can be removed by a majority of all the then members of Rajya Sabha. But the Chairman (Vice-President) can only be removed from his office by a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members of Rajya Sabha and agreed to by the Lok Sabha.
13. As the Vice-President is an ex-officio Chairman and not a member of Rajya Sabha, he is normally not entitled to vote. He can vote only in case of a tie.
