BJP-led NDA heading to much eluded majority in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: All set to bag 11 out of 12 seats in the Rajya Sabha bypolls, the BJP-led NDA is heading to the much eluded majority in the Upper House that still has eight vacancies from Jammu and Kashmir and the nominated members’ category.

Of the 12 seats on poll, Congress can win only one seat in Telangana where it fielded senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi. BJP is winning nine seats while one each is going to NCP and Rashtriya Lok Manch, both NDA constituents.

At present, the NDA has the support of 110 MPs, including six unaligned nominated members and an independent from Haryana, and it will rise to 121 in a House of 237 when the scrutiny of nomination papers completes on Thursday, as all candidates fielded by parties are likely to get elected.

When the government chooses to fill the four vacancies in the nominated category, the NDA support base could further rise to 125, which is two more than required when the House attains the full strength of 245. Of the eight nominated MPs, two have joined BJP while others support the government.

The elections to four seats from Jammu and Kashmir, which have remained vacant since February 2021, will be conducted after the Assembly is constituted in October.

With the bypolls, BJP will have 96 MPs while the main Opposition Congress has 27. Trinamool Congress is the third largest with 13 seats followed by AAP and DMK (10 each) and RJD (5).

The Opposition I.N.D.I.A has 88 MPs on its side and can also count on BJD’s eight MPs while taking on the government. YSR Congress (11), AIADMK (4) and BRS (4) remain non-aligned but tilt towards the government. BSP also has one member who off-late has been seen with the Opposition.

The ruling BJP had been facing trouble in Rajya Sabha, especially due to AIADMK leaving the alliance and BJD, which had been providing strategic support inside the Parliament, placing itself in the Opposition space after the electoral rout in Odisha.

The elections to the dozen seats were necessitated after ten Rajya Sabha MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha and two – BRS’ K Keshava Rao and BJD’s Mamata Mohanta – resigned before their defection to Congress and BJP respectively.

Of the 12, BJP had seven seats while Congress had two – Haryana and Rajasthan – and RJD, BRS and BJD had one each. Though Congress won from Telangana at the expense of BRS, it lost its sitting seats in Rajasthan and Haryana where the BJP is in power and have numbers to get its nominee elected. BJP also shared one seat each in Bihar and Maharashtra with its allies.

BJP got its two Union Ministers George Kurien and Ranveet Bittu romp home from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan while it fielded Congress turncoat Kiran Chowdhury from Haryana. Former Union Minister Rameswar Teli, who was denied a ticket in the Lok Sabha election, was fielded from Assam. 

In Odisha, BJP leader Jagannath Pradhan has filed nominations as an independent candidate while BJP has fielded Mamata Mohanta as its candidate. BJP leaders claimed that Pradhan is a “dummy” candidate and would be out of the fray once Mamata’s papers are accepted.