The BJP is the first party to reach 100 seats in the Rajya Sabha in the last three decades. The new tally comes after biennial elections to the upper house of Assam, Tripura and Nagaland in Thursday’s polls.
In Himachal Pradesh, BJP candidate Dr Sikander Kumar has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. The party now has all the seats from the state in the upper house of parliament. S Phangnon Konyak, president of the BJP’s Nagaland unit’s women’s front, was also elected unopposed in the upper house.
BJP Tripura president Manik Sahao also won a single seat in the Rajya Sabha, becoming the first BJP member from the state in the upper house.
The Saffron Party and its ally United People’s Party Liberal Assam won two seats in the recent elections. For the first time, the Congress will not have a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam.
The growing power of the BJP and the NDA in the upper house will enable the smooth passage of government laws in Parliament.
Although the BJP has reached a century, its hold on the triple figure may weaken as elections for 52 more seats will be held soon and it is expected to reduce the number of states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Rajasthan and Jharkhand.
Injury to Congress
The number of Congress members in the Rajya Sabha will shrink after the biennial elections to the upper house. However, of further concern to the party is the shrinking presence of the Grand Old Party across the state. The Congress will have no representatives in the Rajya Sabha from the 17 States and Union Territories.
At the end of March, the number of parties in the Rajya Sabha was 33, according to a report in The Indian Express. Now, four members have already retired and nine more will retire next month. The party’s tally will drop to 30 after the recent upper house vote.
What is the number recommended?
Votes in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka next year will be important to increase the number of Congress in the Rajya Sabha later this year.
The BJP, despite having a slim majority in the 245-member House, highlighted its steady growth since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took it to a majority in the Lok Sabha in the 2014 elections. The BJP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha was 55 in 2014 and since then the party has grown steadily as it has won power in several states.
The last time a party had 100 or more seats in the upper house was in 1990 when the then ruling Congress had 108 members before the imminent fall. Its strength in the Rajya Sabha dropped to 99 in the 1990 biennial elections and it continued to decline as the states lost a stream and the alliance era began and continued till 2014.
(With input from PTI)
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