New Delhi: The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) reached the majority mark in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday after nine BJP members and one each from NCP and Rashtriya Lok Manch were elected unopposed in the bypolls.
BJP’s strength in the Upper House of the Parliament has reached 96, while NDA’s number swelled to 112. The NDA also enjoys the backing of six nominated members and one independent member.
Majority mark at 119
The total strength of the Rajya Sabha is 245 seats, but with eight seats currently vacant—four from Jammu and Kashmir and four reserved for nominated members—the present working strength of the house stands at 237. This places the majority mark at 119 seats.
The bypolls were necessitated mostly by resignation of MPs who were elected to Lok Sabha in the general elections.
The newly elected BJP members included Mission Ranjan Dass and Rameshwar Teli from Assam, Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar, Kiran Choudhry from Haryana, Dhirya Sheel Patil from Maharashtra, Mamata Mohanta from Odisha, and Rajeev Bhattacharjee from Tripura. Union ministers George Kurien and Ravneet Singh Bittu have also been elected to Rajya Sabha.
Two Union ministers among elected members
While Union minister of state Ravneet Singh Bittu was elected unopposed from Rajasthan, George Kurien, minister of state for fisheries, was elected from Madhya Pradesh.
Nitin Patil from Ajit Pawar’s faction of the NCP was elected unopposed from Maharashtra, and Upendra Kushwaha, the national president of Rashtriya Lok Morcha, was also elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Kushwaha was a former Union minister.
Opposition’s strength in Upper House at 85
Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi was also elected unopposed from Telangana. This took the opposition’s strength in the Upper House to 85.
With NDA crossing the majority, the passage of contentious bills would be easy for it. Earlier it needed help from Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress to pass some of the bills. Both are in opposition now.