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The BJP now has 86 seats after four MPs completed their term, taking the strength of the NDA led by the party in Rajya Sabha to 101, below the majority mark of 113 in the 245-member House.
The strength of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha slid to 86 after four of its members completed their term on July 13—the first decline in several years.
The members were Sonal Mansingh, Mahesh Jethmalani, Rakesh Sinha, and Ram Shakal. They were nominated by President Droupadi Murmu as non-aligned members on the advice of the ruling party and later formally joined the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With their resignation, the strength of the BJP in the lower house has come down to 86 while the National Democratic Alliance now stands at 101 seats. It is less than the current majority mark of 113 in the 245-member House.
It is expected that the ruling-BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will win two seats each in Bihar, Maharashtra and Assam, and one seat each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura after all, where this ruling dispensation holds an edge over the opposition due to its better numerical strength.
The four newly nominated members, too, are likely to be on the same page with the treasury benches once they are appointed by the government. Though the nominated members are generally free in the House, in terms of their affiliations with the party, they normally uphold the agenda of the government which picks them.
With several vacancies in the Rajya Sabha now, the Congress wants to win the lone seat in Telangana from the BRS but its gain will be offset by the loss in Rajasthan where the BJP will pick up the seat vacated by K.C. Venugopal, a senior member who won the Lok Sabha poll from Alappuzha in Kerala when 19 seats in the Upper House fall vacant soon as several members retire or get elected to either Lok Sabha or state assemblies.
