look news india
New Delhi: For the first time, BJP's strength in Rajya Sabha has decreased from 90 to 86. While NDA's strength has decreased from 105 to four digits. In such a situation, they have to take support to pass bills in Rajya Sabha. This situation has arisen after four nominated members of BJP, Rakesh Sinha, Ram Shakal, Sonal Mansingh and Mahesh Jethmalani retired after completing their tenure.
This has reduced the strength of BJP to 86 and the strength of NDA to 101. A majority in the 245-member Rajya Sabha requires 113 members, although the NDA has the support of the remaining seven appointed MPs and one independent MP. Currently, the number of Rajya Sabha MPs is 225.
The strength of the Congress-led India Bloc is 87. Of these, Congress has 26. Trinamool Congress has 13, Aam Aadmi Party and DMK have 10 seats each. The one party that is not affiliated to BJP or Congress X is Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao's BRS and is an independent party.
This simply means that the government will be dependent on non-NDA parties in the Rajya Sabha. These include former allies AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and former Andhra Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party as well as other nominated MPs. The BJP can fill four nominated seats here. While 11 vacant seats will be filled by elections this year. The BJP is confident of winning at least eight of these seats.
At present, BJP needs 15 votes from the NDA party to pass the bill and NDA needs 12 more votes. Out of these twelve votes, seven come from the remaining nominated MPs. While eight independent members can be found. In this way, the ruling party is four inches away from the magic figure of 113 for majority.
For this, YSRCP with 11 seats or votes is one of the two natural choices for BJP. Since Reddy has been giving issue-based support to BJP in the past, it is believed that Modi's party will get these votes. Former Odisha CM Biju Patnaik was earlier in support of BJP, but is now in the opposition. He has nine members. Currently 20 seats are vacant in Rajya Sabha. Elections will be held on 11 of these by the end of this year.
