Rajya Sabha
Credit: PTI via Sansad TV
New Delhi: The BJP and JD(S) on Thursday injected some last-minute drama into the Rajya Sabha elections by fielding additional candidates in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka, thus forcing a contest and adding anxiety to the Congress and Samajwadi Party camps, which will now have to scramble to ensure victory of their third nominees in these states.
In Karnataka, BJP-JD(S) fielded D Kupendra Reddy as the fifth candidate where there are four seats. As per numbers, Congress can get three of its candidates – Ajay Maken, Syed Nasir Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar – to win while fortune favours BJP when it comes to its nominee—N K Bhandage.
However, Reddy’s entry has ensured an election and it is to be seen whether his candidature can impact the results. There has been murmurs within the Congress over the candidature of Maken, an “outsider”, but Congress managers expressed confidence that all nominees will sail through easily.
In UP, the BJP can win seven out of ten seats and SP can win three, as per the strength in the Assembly but the entry of businessman-turned-politician Sanjay Seth, a former Rajya Sabha MP who defected from the Akhilesh Yadav-led party to the saffron camp in 2020, has muddied the water.
Seth’s entry on the last day of nominations has put SP candidates—especially Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan—under pressure after SP ally Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel saying that she does not see any reason to support them. The SP has also fielded Ramjilal Suman, who is said to be on a stronger wicket.
The BJP expects that Seth can attract some votes from his previous party, especially with resentment growing in the socialist group. Recently, Swami Prasad Maurya has quit party posts while questions were raised about the candidature of Jaya and Ranjan.
In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP has fielded former Congress minister Harsh Mahajan against Abhishek Singhvi. Congress has enough votes but the BJP is eyeing cross-voting.
Otherwise, BJP was to win 28 out of the 56 Rajya Sabha seats that are going to polls in 15 seats. Without considering Seth’s candidature, BJP was losing two from the nine sitting seats in UP and one in Andhra Pradesh while gaining one each in Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal.
Of its 28 sitting MPs, it had benched 24, including union ministers and senior leaders, while retaining only four, including party chief JP Nadda, Ashwani Vaishnaw, Sudhanshu Trivedi and L Murugan.
For the Congress, there is an improvement from nine to ten seats in this election but the highlight is Sonia Gandhi’s candidature from Rajasthan as she hangs her boots from electoral politics. It is losing one each sitting seat in Gujarat and Bengal but is gaining two from Telangana and one in Himachal Pradesh, which Nadda was representing.
Congress will also see Ajay Maken being inducted into Rajya Sabha from Karnataka along with Syed Nasir Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar. Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi will return to the Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh and not from West Bengal, where Congress has no MLAs.
The party is also bringing Renuka Chowdhury to the Rajya Sabha from Telangana after a six-year gap while Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh got a renomination. Anil Yadav (Telangana) and Ashok Singh (Madhya Pradesh) are also being inducted into Rajya Sabha.
TDP will not have any representation in the Rajya Sabha with its sitting MP Kanakamedal Ravindra Nath unable to return from Andhra Pradesh where YSR Congress is improving its numbers from one to three.
BRS members in the RS will decrease to one MP from three, as the numbers now favour Congress, which defeated the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party in the recent polls.
Factions of Sharad Pawar (NCP) and Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena - UBT) will lose one each MPs as Ajit Pawar-led NCP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena will get one each seat.
RJD will retain two seats – sitting MP Manoj K Jha and fresh face Sanjay Yadav – in Bihar while JD(U) can only get one in place of two retiring MPs.
Trinamool Congress will send four MPs from West Bengal – Sagarika Ghose, Sushmita Dev, Mamata Thakur and Mohd Nadimul Haque. Only Haque got renomination while three sitting MPs were axed. Sushmita will be returning to the Rajya Sabha after a gap.