New Delhi: Congress is going to go without representation in Rajya Sabha from Gujarat for the first time as the Election Commission has announced elections for 24 seats of the House on June 18. BJP’s two minority faces in the government and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda are among those retiring from the Upper House.Given the current strength of the state assemblies, where Rajya Sabha elections will be held on June 18, the Congress is likely to gain at least one seat and if the BJP chooses to do so, there is a possibility of interesting contests in at least two states, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, with the ruling NDA taking all four seats in Andhra Pradesh.The 24 seats are spread across Andhra Pradesh (4), Gujarat (4), Karnataka (4), Madhya Pradesh (3), Rajasthan (3), Jharkhand (2) and one seat each is vacant in the four north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram.With the retirement of Shaktisinh Gohil, the lone Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, and his party not having enough numbers to retain the seat, the BJP stronghold will now have no member from the rival party in the Rajya Sabha.As against the 12 outgoing seats, the BJP is almost certain to retain 11 seats and may gain even more seats if an ally like TDP supports its candidate or some members of rival parties support its candidates, a political maneuver it has often done in the past.Union ministers Ravneet Singh ‘Bittu’ and George Kurien, the Sikh and Christian faces of the BJP from Punjab and Kerala respectively, will retire from the Rajya Sabha next month. Bittu was selected from Rajasthan and Kurien from Madhya Pradesh because the BJP lacked the requisite strength in the assemblies of their home states.JD(S) leader Deve Gowda, who is 93, has indicated that he will not return to the Rajya Sabha and the numbers in the Karnataka Assembly anyway suggest that the BJP-JD(S) alliance may win only one seat against the three it currently holds. Kharge (83) is also among the members retiring from the state.While the YSR Congress has three outgoing MPs, its defeat in the 2024 assembly elections means it may not win any seats. In Jharkhand, NDA is four MLAs short of the 28 MLAs required to win a seat. In Madhya Pradesh, where former CM Digvijay Singh is among the three MPs to retire, the Congress has 64 MLAs against the 58 required to win a seat. The BJP, which will have about 48 votes left after retaining its two seats, may force a contest.