New Delhi, Oct. 2 -- The stage is set for elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh. Election will be held on October 16.

Nine of these ten seats are decided given the numbers in UP assembly that the parties have. But a contest for one seat is expected to emerge as a high-octane battle between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP).

The Rajya Sabha polls hold significance as they come just ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The math is simple. Currently, eight of the 10 outgoing Uttar Pradesh seats are held by the BJP, while the SP and Mayawati's BSP hold one each.

If all goes well (no additional candidate is fielded), based on the present assembly arithmetic, the BJP-...