Two more Rajya Sabha MPs resign

The resignation spree in Rajya Sabha continues with two more MPs— Congress' chief whip Bhubaneswar Kalita and Samajwadi Party's Sanjay Seth— putting in their papers.

With this, the Congress' number in the House has come down to 46 while that of the Samajwadi Party has come down to 10. Three MPs from SP and two from the Congress have quit so far.

Earlier, four out of six TDP MPs had crossed over to the BJP and the lone MP of INLD had followed suit.

Curiously, Kalita not only submitted a notice to suspend the business of Rajya Sabha to discuss Kashmir developments but later also sent in his resignation letter.

Kalita said that he will not analyse the reasons now and that he will explain why he quit in a couple of days.

He said that he was disillusioned with the way things were developing, indicating his unhappiness with the Congress.

Seth has been absent during some of the crucial voting that led to the Opposition defeat on Triple Talaq and RTI Amendment bills.

Seth is the third Samajwadi Party MP to resign after Neeraj Shekhar and Surendra Nagar. Kalita is the second Congress MP to quit after Sanjay Singh, who quit during the Triple Talaq bill debate.

At present, the BJP has 78 seats and this could increase to 79 later this month as one each Rajya Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan would go to bypoll on August 24.

With the numbers it has in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is likely to win the seat and is expected to field Neeraj Shekhar.

In Rajasthan where the seat became vacant due to BJP MP Madanlal Saini's death, the Congress has an upper hand.