The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has further consolidated its position in the Rajya Sabha after crossing the 100-mark after nine BJP candidates, including Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, were elected unopposed to the Upper House on Monday, 2 November.
The Congress, which dominated the Upper House for a long time, is now down to 38 seats, its lowest ever tally. On Monday, it lost two more seats to the BJP in the 242-member House.
Out of the 11 Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs, 10 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand, nine were won by BJP candidates, including Union Urban Development Minister Puri, taking the party’s tally to 92 seats, PTI reported.
PM Modi Takes Dig at Congress Numbers in Parliament in Bihar Rally
Speaking at one of his final rallies for the Bihar state elections on Monday, 3 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this had happened because the Congress had ‘fooled’ the public for so long, and were being punished as a result by the people of India in elections.
“The public cannot be fooled for long, look at what condition the public has put Congress party in... Today they do not even have a total of 100 MPs in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha... people still punish them whenever there's a chance,” he said.
Current Numbers in Rajya Sabha
NDA constituent Janata Dal (United) has five seats. The ruling alliance also has some smaller parties like RPI-Athawale, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Bodoland People's Front (BPF). Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Mizo National Front (MNF), National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF), which have one seat each, totalling seven seats.
The NDA tally will now be 104 and it can get the support of four nominated members. The half-way mark is 121 in Rajya Sabha, whose current strength is 242.
The ruling alliance can also seek support on crucial bills from parties that are extending issue-based support to the NDA. These include the AIADMK with nine MPs, BJD with nine MPs, TRS with seven MPs and YSRCP which has six MPs in Rajya Sabha.
The Samajwadi Party has lost three seats in these RS polls in Uttarakhand and UP and the BSP lost one seat. Those elected unopposed today included BJP's Neeraj Shekhar, Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Haridwar Dubey, Brijlal, BL Varma and Seema Dwivedi; Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav; and BSP's Ramji Gautam.
High drama was witnessed on the last day of filing of nomination papers on Tuesday with Samajwadi Party- supported independent candidate Prakash Bajaj entering the fray minutes before the deadline. His papers were, however, rejected during scrutiny, but not before four signatories of the BSP candidate Ramji Gautam's nomination papers claimed that their signatures were forged and gave an affidavit to the Returning Officer in this regard. BSP president Mayawati suspended these four and three others who had allegedly met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav after coming out in the open against the party leadership.
The term of the newly elected members will be from 25 November 2020 to 24 November 2026.
(With inputs from PTI)
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