The Rajya Sabha poll results on February 27 have far reaching implications for domestic politics, not just the unfurling crisis with regard to the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, where six MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP, or in Uttar Pradesh where the Samajwadi Party (SP) lost its chief whip along with seven MLAs.
The effect of the polls is the netting of two extra seats in the Rajya Sabha for the BJP, and the NDA rising just four seats short of a majority in the Upper House. The BJP and the NDA have since 2014 enjoyed a full majority in the Lok Sabha, and have had no trouble with the passage of any legislation, not so in the Rajya Sabha, where in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term, March 2015 in fact, the government had to face the ignominy of seeing amendments by the Opposition being carried through. That amendments were moved by the Opposition to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address over corruption and black money.
Himachal Pradesh political crisis live updates, February 28, 2024
Since then, the NDA has treaded a careful path of keeping several neutral parties such as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the YSRCP with it when contemplating tricky legislation.
In these set of biennale polls to the Rajya Sabha, the BJP saw 28 of its MPs retiring, and was expected to win back exactly the same number. However, because of cross-voting by Himachal Pradesh’s Congress MLAs and Samajwadi Party MLAs in Uttar Pradesh it netted two extra seats.
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The numbers will take the BJP’s tally in Rajya Sabha to 97 and that of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to 117, just four short of the majority mark of 121 in the 240-member House once all 56 members are sworn in.
The BJP also remains the single-largest party in the Rajya Sabha with 97 members (including five nominated members who joined the party) followed by the Congress with 29 members, the Trinamool Congress with 13, the DMK and the AAP with 10 each, the BJD and the YSRCP with nine each, the BRS with seven, the RJD with six, the CPI (M) with five, and the AIADMK and the JD(U) with four each.
