For the first time in several years, the Bhartiya Janta Party's seats in Rajya Sabha have been reduced to below 90. However, the party is expected to revamp its position in the Upper House after by-elections to fill the existing vacancies are held in the coming weeks. The BJP-led NDA coalition is confident of winning two seats each in Maharashtra, Bihar and Assam. It is also eyeing to clinch a seat each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Rajasthan as they have the dominating numbers against the opposition. The current strength of the Rajya Sabha is 226 with the BJP occupying 86 seats followed by Congress with 26 seats and TMC with 13 seats. Currently, there are 19 vacant seats in the Upper House.
Congress may lose Rajasthan, Haryana to BJP
According to the numerical strength of parties and subsequently developing equations, Congress is eyeing to win a single seat in Telangana. However, its tally will not be improved in the house as its gain is likely to get cancelled in Rajasthan where the BJP has a strong majority. Rajasthan seat was recently vacated by senior Congress leader KC Venugopal, who won the Lok Sabha poll from Alappuzha in Kerala. Similarly in Haryana, BJP is set to take a seat vacated by Deepender Singh Hooda, who won the Lok Sabha elections.
Bypolls on 11 seats
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce the date for elections to fill the 11 seats vacated by the resignation of members. Ten of them were elected to Lok Sabha while one MP, K Keshava Rao of the BRS, quit after joining the Congress. Out of the total 19 vacancies in the Upper House, four are from Jammu and Kashmir where there is no assembly currently after it was made a Union Territory in 2019. Rest four are designated for the members nominated by the President.
(With PTI inputs)
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