With 9 seats, BJP may bag major chunk in RS bypolls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to bag nine of the twelve Rajya Sabha seats in the latest round of by-elections in which all candidates might win uncontested, barring any last-minute change. Of the remaining three seats, two will go to the NDA allies NCP and RLM. The Congress will get its lone seat from Telangana.

On Tuesday the BJP announced candidates for the Rajya Sabha by-polls, nominating former Union minister Rameshwar Teli and a four-time former legislator Ranjan Das from Assam. The two seats had fallen vacant after Union minister Sarbanand Sonowal won the Lok Sabha seat from Dibrugarh and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa won the seat from Kaziranga.

Union minister George Kurian has been nominated from Madhya Pradesh, where the seat had fallen vacant on the election of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to the Lok Sabha from Guna.

The Congress has fielded Abhishek Singhvi from Telangana.

The BJP and its allies are all set to gain two seats from Rajasthan and Bihar, which were earlier held by the opposition. The Congress will lose a seat from Rajasthan that was held by KC Venugopal and will now be represented by former Congress leader Ravneet Singh Bittu who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls. He been nominated by the BJP from Rajasthan.

From Bihar, where two seats have fallen vacant with the election of BJP’s Vivek Thakur and RJD’s Misa Bharti to the Lok Sabha, the BJP has nominated former Delhi Bar Council president Manan Kumar Misra as the candidate. The second name is that of Upendra Kushwaha as the NDA nominee, who will file his nomination on Wednesday. The opposition in the state has lost one seat in the Upper House from Bihar.

In poll-bound Haryana, former Congress leader Kiran Chaudhary is the BJP’s pick. She joined the party on June 19 ahead of the assembly polls in Haryana in October. The seat fell vacant on the election of Deepender Hooda to the Lok Sabha. The seat will now go the BJP, taking the party’s tally in the Upper House to 96.

In Maharashtra, where two vacancies arose with the election of union minister Piyush Goyal and Udayanraje Bhonsle to the Lok Sabha, the BJP has nominated Dharyashil Patil as the candidate, the candidate for the second seat will be announced by the NCP (Ajit Pawar).

In Odisha, Mamata Mohanta has been nominated as the candidate from the seat that fell vacant after she resigned as a member of the Upper House from the Biju Janata Dal. She recently switched sides to the BJP.

State unit president of Tripura, Rajib Bhattacharjee has been nominated by the BJP from the state, the seat had fallen vacant on the election of Biplab Deb to the Lok Sabha.

The BJP that currently has 87 members in the Rajya Sabha will have 96 seats, the Congress will get 27 lawmakers.

Even as the Congress’ tally will improve by one seat, it would not compensate for the pre-Lok Sabha election tally of 28. It would, however, provide a crucial buffer to the LoP status, which requires at least 25 MPs.

The Congress will get an MP from Telangana. BRS lawmaker K Kesava Rao had resigned from the Rajya Sabha last month and returned to the Congress party. He now enjoys a post with Cabinet minister’s rank in the Telangana government.