New Delhi: The ruling BJP and the opposition parties face the crucial Rajya Sabha poll test before the key Presidential elections in July with a contest for 57 seats of the upper house of Parliament on June 10. The electoral college for the Presidential polls consists of Members of Parliament (both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) and the Members of Legislative Assemblies in the states.
The total strength of MPs comes to 776 (RS 233 and LS 543) and each MP’s vote has a value of 708. In the case of MLAs, totaling 4,120 across the country, the value of their vote changes from state to state depending upon the population, calculated as per the 1971 Census. The BJP, which recently won three seats from Assam, Tripura, and Nagaland to reach 101 in the 245-member House, has 95 members in the Rajya Sabha at present due to 16 vacancies.
BJP ally JD(U) has 4 while Congress has 29 members, TMC 13, AAP 8, DMK 10, RJD 6, YSRCP 6, TRS 6, RJD 5 and NCP 4. The NDA still has an advantage but the going for the BJP will not be smooth given the saffron party’s tally of MLAs in state assemblies actually came down this year despite its 4/5 win in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur in March. The AAP swept Punjab in March.
This will force the BJP to try harder to gain numbers in the Rajya Sabha, while the opposition parties too will be under pressure to boost their decreasing tally. The 57 Rajya Sabha seats for which polls are being held on June 10 are spread across 15 states, while seven seats of nominated MPs are also vacant. A state-wise break-up shows that 11 RS seats in Uttar Pradesh, 6 each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, 5 in Bihar, 4 each in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, 3 in Odisha, 2 each in Punjab, Jharkhand, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Telangana and 1 in Uttarakhand are up for grabs.
Here, the BJP, which has 23/57 seats, has an advantage over the Congress, which has 8. The BJP will have an edge in party-ruled UP, MP, Karnataka, Haryana, Odisha, and Bihar, where it is part of the ruling alliance led by JD-U. The Congress will have an advantage in party-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh besides Jharkhand, where it is part of the ruling alliance led by JMM. Among the regional parties, DMK and Aam Aadmi Party are set to increase their tally in the upper house while the TRS will have an advantage in Telangana.
The BJP, which has a brute majority of 301/543 in the Lok Sabha, wants to further add numbers in the Rajya Sabha to be able to push through legislation but often faces hurdles from a united opposition. Among the key BJP faces whose terms are ending are, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. However, it will be easy for the ruling party to get them re-elected. The tenure of many Congress veterans, like P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Jairam Ramesh and Ambika Soni are also set to end.
Also read: Nirmala Sitharaman likely to contest RS polls from Karnataka again
