Rajya Sabha: BJP and Allies Win 11/12 Seats, Gain Simple Majority in Upper House

The results are a boost to the BJP in the Upper House where no single party since 1988-1990 has had an upper hand.

The results of the Rajya Sabha elections to 12 seats have been announced with all the candidates getting elected unopposed. While BJP has won nine seats, and its allies two seats, the Congress has won one seat.

The NDA has gained four seats, the INDIA bloc has lost two seats and non-aligned parties like the BJD/BRS  have lost one seat each. The results propelled the NDA to a simple majority in the Rajya Sabha for the first time since coming to power in 2014.

With friendly parties like Naveen Patnaik’s BJD turning hostile and Jagan Reddy’s YSRCP weighing options, these results are a shot in the arm for the BJP in the Upper House where no single party since 1988-1990 has had an upper hand.

While the election results will help the BJP pass bills that require a simple majority with relative ease, constitutional amendments that require a two-thirds majority would still prove to be tricky. 

Pre-poll Dynamics

Of the 12 seats, 10 had fallen vacant after these MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha in June, while two due to resignations in July. BRS MP K Keshava Rao resigned on 5 July, and BJD MP Mamata Mohanta resigned on 31 July.

Of these 12 seats, seven were held by the BJP, two by the Congress, and one each by the RJD, the BRS, and the BJD. Six of the 12 seats were in Assam, Bihar, and Maharashtra (two in each) and one seat each is in Telangana, Odisha, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Before these elections, of the 225 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP had 87 while the NDA had 108 including three nominated and two independent MPs. The INDIA bloc had 85 MPs while non-aligned parties like the YSRCP, BJD, BRS, BSP, AIADMK and Others had 32 MPs. The NDA was short of a majority by 5 seats, the simple majority required was 113.

To win a Rajya Sabha seat, a candidate should get the required number of votes, which is called the quotient.

Quotient = (Total no. of seats in State Legislature) divided by (No. of Rajya Sabha seats for which elections are being held + 1) + 1

However, since these were by-polls the quotient for each seat is calculated individually. 

State-wise Dynamics

In Assam, the BJP held both the seats vacated by Sarbananda Sonowal and Kamayakha Prasad Tasa. The state assembly has 126 seats, and currently, five are vacant. NDA has 77 seats, INDIA bloc 24, and other parties like the AIUDF, BPF etc have 20 seats. Both candidates of the BJP were elected unopposed.

In Bihar, the BJP and RJD held one seat each vacated by Vivek Thakur and Misa Bharti respectively. The state assembly has 243 seats, and currently, four are vacant. The NDA has 134 seats while INDIA has 104. The opposition INDIA bloc didn’t put up a candidate and the BJP and its ally the RLM won one seat each unopposed.

In Maharashtra, the two seats were vacated by the BJP's Piyush Goyal and Udayaraje Bhonsale. The BJP and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) fielded one candidate each. The state assembly has 288 seats, and currently, 15 are vacant. The NDA has 202 while INDIA has 69 seats. Both candidates of the NDA won unopposed.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP held the seat that was vacated by Jyotiraditya Scindia. The BJP has 164 of the 230 MLAs in the house, winning the seat unopposed. In Odisha, the seat that went to the polls was held by the BJD. By virtue of the victory in recent state elections, the BJP gained the seat from the BJD.

In Tripura, by virtue of the BJP being in government, it was expected to retain the seat held by it which fell vacant due to Biplab Dev entering the Lok Sabha. In Telangana, the Rajya Sabha seat which went to the polls was held by the BRS. The Congress party, which won the assembly elections last year, won the seat from BRS with lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi elected unopposed. 

In Rajasthan, the seat that went to polls was held by the Congress party’s KC Venugopal. As the party lost the state polls last year, it lost the seat to the BJP.

Haryana was expected to be trickier for both parties. The seat was held by the Congress party and fell vacant after Deepender Hooda got elected to the Lok Sabha. In an assembly of 90 seats, the NDA has 43 MLAs after the JJP pulled support from the government, while the INDIA bloc has 32 MLAs. The Congress didn’t force a contest and Kiran Chaudhary of the BJP, who hopped on from the grand old party recently, was elected unopposed. 

Post-poll Dynamics

After the polls to these 12 seats, the Rajya Sabha now has 237 members, and eight seats are vacant, ie, four from J&K and four nominated members. With the BJP winning nine seats, its individual tally improves to 96, while the NDA tally improves to 112.

The NDA enjoys the support of six nominated members and one independent, taking its tally to 119, which is the exact simple majority number in the Upper House currently. The INDIA bloc tally was reduced to 84 (a deficit of one). The Congress has 27 MPs, just two more than the number required to occupy the Leader of Opposition post.

With the BJD announcing to be in opposition, and YSRCP weighing options after its rival TDP joined the NDA, the BJP needed a simple majority of its own to pass bills in the Rajya Sabha. For constitutional amendments, it would need to depend upon the BSP, AIADMK and independents, but that would not be enough, as the two-thirds majority mark is 158. 

(Amitabh Tiwari is an independent political commentator and can be reached at @politicalbaaba on X [formerly Twitter]. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)