NDA holds majority in Rajya Sabha after 12 members elected unopposed to Upper House

New Delhi: Twelve people were on Tuesday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha with all but one belonging to the NDA, giving the ruling BJP-led coalition majority in the Upper House.

Nine of the 12 seats went to BJP while its allies NCP and Rashtriya Lok Manch won one each in Maharashtra and Bihar respectively. Congress won the remaining lone seat from Telangana.

Before the results, the NDA had the support of 110 MPs, including six unaligned nominated members and an independent from Haryana, and it rose to 121 in a House of 237. There are eight vacancies – four each from Jammu and Kashmir and nominated category – in Rajya Sabha.

DH had on August 22 reported that the NDA is heading for majority after the results for the 12 seats are announced and it could further rise to 125 when the government chooses to fill the four vacancies in the nominated category, which is two more than required when the House attains the full strength of 245.

While the lone Congress winner was senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, the BJP winners included two Union Ministers George Kurien from Madhya Pradesh and Ravneet Singh Bittu from Rajasthan. Both were not MPs when they were inducted into the Union Council of Ministers in June and law mandated that they get elected to Parliament within six months.

Congress turncoat Kiran Chowdhury won from BJP quota in Haryana while Manan Kumar Mishra romped home from Bihar. RLM’s Upendra Kushwaha also won from Bihar.

Other winners included BJD turncoat Mamata Mohanta from Odisha, Rameswar Teli and Mission Ranjan Das from Assam and Dhairyasheel Patil from Maharashtra (all BJP) and Ajit Pawar-led NCP's Nitin Patil from Maharashtra.

In Odisha, BJP leader Jagannath Pradhan withdrew his nomination following a directive from the party. He said he had filed the nominations on the party’s instructions and withdrew it following another directive.

The elections to the dozen seats were necessitated after ten Rajya Sabha MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha and two – BRS’ K Keshava Rao and BJD’s Mamata Mohanta – resigned before their defection to Congress and BJP respectively.

With this BJP will have 96 MPs while the main Opposition Congress has 27. Trinamool Congress is the third largest with 13 seats followed by AAP and DMK (10 each) and RJD (5).

The Opposition I.N.D.I.A has 88 MPs and can also count on BJD’s eight MPs on its side.. YSR Congress (11), AIADMK (4) and BRS (4) remain non-aligned but tilt towards the government. BSP also has one member who off-late has been seen with the Opposition.