PM Narendra Modi takes a dig at Congress as BJP grows in strength in Rajya Sabha

As BJP grew in strength in Rajya Sabha, shoring its number to 92 as against 38 of Congress after the November 2 elections for the Upper House, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a swipe at the main Opposition party saying public anger has reduced the party to such a sorry state that it has been left with less than 100 MPs in both Houses of Parliament together.

Congress currently has 51 members in Lok Sabha and 38 in Rajya Sabha, totalling 89, which is its lowest strength in Parliament so far.

Of the 11 Rajya Sabha seats including 10 in Uttar Pradesh for which elections were being held, the BJP has won the nine, which has made the NDA cross the 100-mark in the Upper House, where it has many times struggled for support to get the key legislations passed.

NDA allies JDU has five seats while RPI-Athawale, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Mizo National Front (MNF), National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Bodoland People's Front (BPF) have one seat each in the Upper totalling seven seats.

This gets the total of 104 seats for NDA, which is still short of seven seats for the halfway mark of 121 in the 242-member House.

Besides these, polling will be held on December 1 for the lone vacant seat in Karnataka in December, which the ruling BJP will now easily win.

11 seats will fall vacant in 2021 and 68 in 2022 in many Rajya Sabha seats in Opposition-ruled states will fall vacant, from where the BJP could look forward to increasing its tally. It will still be two years for the next general elections in 2024 and hence BJP will have ample time to push its core agenda issues before that.

Even now since the BJP has a state-level alliance with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, which has nine MPs, which makes the job somewhat easier for it in Rajya Sabha with 113 MPs supporting it. Besides, there are friendly parties like BJD (09), TRS (07) with seven MPs and YSRCP (06).

There has been a strong buzz that YSRCP may join the NDA during the next reshuffle of Union Cabinet.

Congress has slipped from its dominant role in the Rajya Sabha and the over-all Opposition numbers are also not good in the House. While Congress lost two seats in the RS polls this time, SP lost three and the BSP one.

Modi, who addressed his last election rallies in Bihar on Tuesday ripped into the Congress saying that the people are punishing the party for its "false promises of poverty eradication and farm loan waiver".

"Public anger has reduced the party to such a sorry state that it has been left with less than 100 MPs in both Houses of Parliament together while in states like UP and Bihar, they have been relegated to the third, fourth or fifth position, and are piggybacking on other parties for survival," Modi said.

Congress is the second-largest partner in the RJD-led alliance in Bihar and both parties have promised farm loan waiver during the ongoing state polls.