Due to the expiration of these nominated members’ mandates on Saturday, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost four significant members in the Rajya Sabha.
These members are Rakesh Sinha, Ram Shakal, Sonal Mansingh, and Mahesh Jethmalani; according to press sources, President Droupadi Murmu first chose them as non-aligned nominees based on the ruling party’s suggestion.
As a result of their retirement, the BJP now has 86 members in the Rajya Sabha, while the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which the BJP leads, now has 101 seats altogether. This figure is less than the 245-member House’s current majority of 113. Seven nominated MPs and one independent member still support the NDA, nonetheless.
There are 225 members in the Rajya Sabha at the moment.
With 240 MPs in the lower chamber of Parliament, the BJP is already well short of the 272 majority needed. This effectively indicates that the ruling party does not currently hold a majority in either of the Parliament’s houses.
The opposition bloc, which is led by the Congress, holds 87 seats, with the Congress itself accounting for 26 seats, followed by 13 seats from West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, and 10 seats each from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu.
Other parties, not aligned with either the BJP or the Congress, including nominated MPs and independents, hold the remaining seats.
With the BJP and the NDA’s tally falling short of the majority mark, what this means is that now the government has to depend upon the support from non-NDA parties, like its former ally in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK and in Andhra Pradesh, former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress.
Jagan Reddy has previously given the government issue-based support. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Naveen Patnaik was the other party that had previously provided similar assistance. But following a brutal electoral campaign in 2024, in which Patnaik lost his position as chief minister to the BJP after a staggering 24 years, the BJD declared that it will no longer support the BJP.
This reliance is probably going to last until the elections for the 11 open seats, which are slated for later this year, are held and the BJP fills the four open nominated seats.
In the Rajya Sabha, there are now 20 open seats, 11 of which are occupied by elected members and for which elections are scheduled for this year. Among these openings are two
In addition, four seats from Jammu and Kashmir remain empty, and elections are scheduled in response to a Supreme Court order mandating that the area have Assembly elections by September 30.
The assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana will be significant since both states will have elections later this year.
Telangana’s impending election is crucial as well, particularly for the Congress, as the Grand Old Party may be able to win enough seats to take the Leader of the Opposition seat in the Rajya Sabha and maintain this position in both Houses of Parliament.
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