Which one among the following states has the highest number of seats in the Council of States?

Correct — D, Tamil Nadu. The Fourth Schedule of the Constitution sets out how many seats in the Council of States each State and Union Territory gets, and among the four names offered the figures are Tamil Nadu 18, Bihar 16, Andhra Pradesh 11 and Madhya Pradesh 11. Tamil Nadu is therefore the answer by a clear margin of two over its nearest rival on the list. Read the stem carefully, though: it asks which of these four has the highest number, not which State has the highest in the House. Uttar Pradesh holds 31 seats, far more than anyone else, and Maharashtra holds 19, so Tamil Nadu is in fact third overall. Andhra Pradesh is the option worth pausing on, because it once would have been a serious contender. Before the State was divided in 2014 it had 18 seats, the same as Tamil Nadu; the reorganisation split them, leaving Andhra Pradesh with 11 and giving Telangana 7. A candidate working from a pre-2014 memory would find this question much harder than it is.

• (a)Andhra Pradesh — 11 seats. It had 18 before the bifurcation of 2014, when the creation of Telangana took 7 of them away. The old figure is what makes this option tempting.
• (b)Bihar — 16 seats — the closest of the three wrong answers, and level with West Bengal. Bihar's own count fell from 22 when Jharkhand was carved out in 2000.
• (c)Madhya Pradesh — 11 seats, tied with Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Madhya Pradesh is large in area but its Council of States representation follows population, and it lost seats when Chhattisgarh was separated in 2000.

Article 80 provides that the Council of States shall have not more than 250 members — up to 238 representing the States and the Union Territories, and 12 nominated by the President from among persons with special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art and social service. The present strength is 245, of whom 233 are elected. Members from a State are chosen by the elected members of that State's Legislative Assembly through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, and since 2003 the ballot is open rather than secret. The seat-by-seat allocation lives in the Fourth Schedule, which is amended whenever States are created or reorganised.

Representation in the Council of States broadly tracks population, but it is deliberately not strictly proportional — the smaller States are over-weighted relative to their numbers, which is why Sikkim, Mizoram and Nagaland each hold one seat rather than a fraction of one. This is the opposite of the American Senate, where every State has exactly two regardless of size, and questions sometimes test that contrast. The other thing to carry is that these numbers move. Every reorganisation rewrites the Fourth Schedule: Bihar lost seats to Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh to Chhattisgarh in 2000, Andhra Pradesh to Telangana in 2014, and Jammu and Kashmir's four seats were reallocated when it became a Union Territory in 2019. A figure memorised from an old table is a common source of error.

• Among the options, Tamil Nadu has 18 Council of States seats, Bihar 16, Andhra Pradesh 11 and Madhya Pradesh 11.
• Uttar Pradesh has the most with 31, followed by Maharashtra with 19 and then Tamil Nadu with 18.
• The allocation of seats to States and Union Territories is set out in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution.
• Article 80 caps the House at 250 — up to 238 elected from States and Union Territories plus 12 nominated by the President; the present strength is 245.
• Members are elected by the elected members of the State Legislative Assembly through proportional representation by single transferable vote, on an open ballot since 2003.

• Answering with the largest State in the whole House rather than the largest among the options offered.
• Using Andhra Pradesh's pre-2014 figure of 18. The bifurcation left it with 11 and gave Telangana 7.
• Assuming representation is strictly proportional to population. It is population-weighted but tilted in favour of the smaller States.

As a highest-or-largest comparison among four States like this one, as a Schedule-matching item on where the allocation is found, or through the method of election.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which State has the largest number of seats in the Council of States?

  • (a)Maharashtra
  • (b)Uttar Pradesh
  • (c)West Bengal
  • (d)Tamil Nadu

  Answer(b) Uttar Pradesh — 31 seats, well ahead of Maharashtra with 19 and Tamil Nadu with 18. West Bengal has 16.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Members of the Council of States representing a State are elected by

  • (a)the people of the State directly
  • (b)the elected members of the State Legislative Assembly
  • (c)all members of the State Legislature including the Legislative Council
  • (d)the Governor on the advice of the Council of Ministers

  Answer(b) the elected members of the State Legislative Assembly — by proportional representation through a single transferable vote, on an open ballot.