Members in the Rajya Sabha during the Winter session of Parliament.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Six candidates are all set to be elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from four states with the ruling NDA bagging five out of six seats that went to bypolls while Trinamool Congress bagged the sixth.
BJP is slated to win three -- one each from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Odisha -- and TDP two from Andhra Pradesh. Trinamool Congress is winning the lone seat in West Bengal. Only six candidates had filed nominations in these states were ruling combine was all set to win.
In Andhra Pradesh, where three seats fell vacant after YSR Congress MPs resigned to join other parties, BJP's Ryaga Krishnaiah and TDP's B Masthan Rao Yadav and S Satish are likely to be declared winner provided their papers are in order. Krishnaiah and Yadav along with M Venkatarmana Rao had quit YSR Congress after their party fared badly in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections earlier this year.
Similarly, Sujeet Kumar, who resigned as BJD MP, too is all set to win as BJP MP. In Haryana, former NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma has been fielded by the BJP in the vacancy created by the resignation of Krishan Lal Panwar, who was elected as an MLA.
In both Odisha and Haryana, no other candidate has filed nominations. Ritabrata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress is also likely to win as he has no opposing candidate.
Once the results are declared, BJP number will rise to 98.
At present, the NDA has 120 MPs in Rajya Sabha -- BJP: 95, Nominated: 6, JD(U): 4, NCP: 3 and AGP, JD(S), MNF, NPP, PMK, RLD, RLM, RPI (Athawale), Shiv Sena, Tamil Manila Congress and UPPL one each. When the House has a full strength of 245, the majority mark is 123.