Elections to 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states were held on March 16 after the terms of several sitting members ended in April. Voting took place in the respective state assembly complexes from 9 am to 4 pm, with MLAs casting their ballots during the day. The counting of votes began at 5 pm. Out of the total seats, 26 candidates had already been elected unopposed after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations passed. The remaining contests were held for seats in several states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Haryana, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh. Rajya Sabha members are chosen by elected MLAs of the state assemblies through a proportional representation system using the single transferable vote method.