BJP's 9 for the taking: RS seats to be secured without a single vote

The BJP is currently at 87 seats in the Rajya Sabha

The 12 vacancies in the Rajya Sabha (RS) are set to be filled without voting, which will see the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win nine seats, including two that it will wrest from the INDIA bloc, helping it inch closer to a 100 seats by the winter session in the 245-member Council of States.

The BJP is currently at 87 seats in the RS. It is set to retain six seats and gain three — two from the Congress and one from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), both constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), are set to win a seat each, from Maharashtra and Bihar, respectively.

In addition to these dozen vacancies, there are four vacancies in the nominated category. The BJP could reach the 100 mark if these nominated members opt to join the party within six months. Currently, of the existing eight nominated Members of Parliament (MPs), two are with the BJP.

These gains would bring the NDA’s tally close to the halfway mark in the RS by the winter session. The only occasion when the BJP had 100 seats in the Upper House was in 2022.

The Congress, on the other hand, is set to lose two seats and could have been at risk of losing the status of the Leader of Opposition for its party leader in the House, but for the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MP K Keshava Rao quitting his seat. Rao’s resignation from Telangana has helped the Congress send Abhishek Manu Singhvi to the RS from that state. This will keep its strength at 25 despite losing two seats, one each from Haryana and Rajasthan, to the BJP. Its INDIA bloc ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), will also lose a seat to the NDA.

The process of filing nominations to fill the dozen vacancies in the RS concluded on Wednesday evening. With 12 candidates having filed their respective nominations for as many vacancies, they are set to be elected unopposed after the scrutiny of their nomination papers on Thursday. Voting, if required, will take place on September 3.

Of the 12 vacancies, 10 arose because these RS MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha (LS) in the recently held general elections, including the BJP’s Piyush Goyal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Biplab Deb, and others, Congress’ K C Venugopal and Deepender Hooda, and RJD’s Misa Bharti. The other two vacancies were due to Rao resigning from the RS since he had quit the BRS to join the Congress and BJD MP Mamata Mohanta resigning her seat to join the BJP. Rao is now an advisor to the Telangana chief minister, and the BJP has fielded Mohanta from the seat that fell vacant after her resignation.

The dozen candidates, if elected, will serve truncated tenures. Besides the 12 vacancies, there are four vacancies from Jammu & Kashmir.

On Wednesday, RLM chief Kushwaha and Supreme Court lawyer Manan Kumar Mishra of the BJP filed their respective nomination papers in Patna. The by-polls have been necessitated by the election to the LS of Vivek Thakur (BJP) and Misa Bharti (RJD).

In Chandigarh, BJP leader Kiran Choudhry filed her nomination. She had recently resigned as a Congress Member of Legislative Assembly. The seat fell vacant after Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda was elected to the LS from Rohtak.

Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu filed his nomination as a BJP candidate from Rajasthan, a seat that fell vacant with the election of Congress’ K C Venugopal to the LS. Mohanta filed her nomination as a BJP candidate from Odisha, and Union Minister George Kurian filed his nomination from Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal. BJP’s Mission Ranjan Das and Rameswar Teli filed their nomination papers for the two seats falling vacant from Assam.

RS tally

245 Total seats
 

Elections to 12 seats
 

NDA to win 11 (BJP: 9)
 

BJP’s tally to increase to 96 and NDA’s to 117

Congress tally to reduce to 25

Other vacancies: 
 

4 nominated and 4 from J&K