n In a major boost to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), nine candidates from the BJP and two from allies have been elected unopposed in the bypolls for the Rajya Sabha. This is the first time that the NDA has reached a majority mark in the Upper House. Currently, it has the support of six nominated and one Independent member.
As nine of the BJP members were elected unopposed, taking its tally to 96 and taking NDA to 112 in the Rajya Sabha. Among the three others to get elected unopposed were one each from NDA allies NCP faction of Ajit Pawar faction and Rashtriya Lok Manch. One member of the Congress also got elected, taking the Opposition numbers in the Upper House to 85. Rajya Sabha has 245 seats, though currently there are eight vacancies — four from Jammu and Kashmir and four nominated. With the House's current strength of 237, the majority mark is 119.
The BJP candidates elected unopposed include Mission Ranjan Dass and Rameshwar Teli from Assam, Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar, Kiran Chadhary from Haryana, George Kurien from Madhya Pradesh, Dhirya Sheel Patil from Maharashtra, Mamata Mohanta from Odisha, Ravneet Singh Bittu from Rajasthan and Rajeev Bhattacharjee from Tripura. Congress's Abhishek Manu Singhvi was elected unopposed from Telangana. NCP Ajit Pawar faction's Nitin Patil got elected from Maharashtra and RLM's Updendra Kushwaha made it to the upper house from Bihar.
The 12 vacant Rajya Sabha seats include those held by Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who have since been elected to the Lok Sabha. In addition to Goyal, Sonowal, and Scindia, other Rajya Sabha members who transitioned to the Lok Sabha after winning parliamentary elections include Kamakhya Prasad Tasa (BJP), Misha Bharti (RJD), Vivek Thakur (BJP), Deepender Singh Hooda (Congress), Udayanraje Bhosle (BJP), KC Venugopal (Congress), and Biplab Kumar Deb (BJP).
Over the years, the huge Opposition numbers had often held up contentious government bills in the upper house. Some of them could be passed with the help of non-aligned parties like Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal and YS Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress. But this time, BJD, after losing the state election and going out of power after 24 years, has taken a firm stand against the BJP. The party has eight members in the Upper House.
