BJP now the single largest party in Rajya Sabha

Set to gain Mayawati's seat, confident of defeating Ahmed Patel

For the first time during the tenure of the Narendra Modi government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday became the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha.

BJP's Sampatiya Uike, who was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, took oath today. She became the party's 58th member in the Upper House. Congress currently has 57 members.

However, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is still way short of the halfway mark of 123 in the 245-member house.

NDA’s numbers are set to get a boost in the Rajya Sabha with the Janata Dal (United) - BJP Bihar alliance. With this, NDA will have 86 members in the Rajya Sabha. But NDA is confident that it can now rely on ‘neutrals’ like All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Biju Janata Dal, Indian National Lok Dal, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, YSR Congress Party and others to gain a majority in the Upper House. With the help of 'neutrals', independents, nominated members and others, the government can potentially muster the support of 126-members in a House of 245.

BJP will gain a seat with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati quitting her membership in protest in July. They are also positive of winning a seat from Gujarat. Elections are due for three seats from Gujarat on August 8. Smriti Irani and party chief Amit Shah are set to win.

A BJP strategist said the party is optimistic that its third candidate Balwantsinh Rajput, which it has fielded against Congress’s Ahmed Patel, should also win. Rajput recently quit the Congress to join BJP. He was the chief whip of Congress. After six of its legislators quit, the Congress shifted its legislators to Bengaluru.

BJP is also slated to gain over a dozen seats by April when elections are due for the 57 vacant Rajya Sabha seats. Of these, as many as 10 are from Uttar Pradesh. BJP’s emphatic win in Uttar Pradesh assembly will reflect in the Rajya Sabha numbers, with the party hopeful of winning at least eight of these seats.

The 57 seats also include three nominated members who are set to retire. These members – Anu Aga, Rekha and Sachin Tendulkar – were nominated to the Rajya Sabha during the tenure of UPA 2. Of the seven nominated during the tenure of the Modi government, four have joined the BJP. These are Subramanian Swamy, Roopa Ganguly, Suresh Gopi and Sambhaji Chhatrapati.