NDA crosses 100-mark in Rajya Sabha, Cong drops to lowest ever tally

The ruling NDA dispensation further consolidated its position in Rajya Sabha crossing the 100mark after nine BJP candidates including Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri were elected unopposed to the Upper House on MondayOn the other hand the Congress which dominated the Upper House for a long time is now down to 38 seats its lowest ever tally in the 242member House after it lost two more seats to the BJP in the current electionsOut of the 11 Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs 10 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand nine were won by BJP candidates including Union Urban Development Minister Puri taking the partys tally to 92 seats It was a gain of six as three of the candidates were reelected NDA constituent JDU has five seatsThe ruling alliance also has some smaller parties like RPIAthawale Asom Gana Parishad AGP Mizo National Front MNF National Peoples Party NPP Naga Peoples Front NPF Pattali Makkal Katchi PMK and Bodoland Peoples Front BPF which have one seat each totalling seven seatsThe NDA tally will now be 104 and it can get the support of four nominated members The halfway mark is 121 in Rajya Sabha whose current strength is 242 The ruling alliance can also seek support on crucial bills from some friendly parties like the AIADMK with nine MPs BJD with nine MPs TRS with seven MPs and YSRCP which has six MPs in Rajya Sabha These parties have been extending issuebased support to the NDAThe Samajwadi Party has lost three seats in these RS polls in Uttarakhand and UP and the BSP lost one seat With the ruling combine further strengthened it will be easier for the government to push its legislative agenda in the Upper House where the NDA did not enjoy a majority Those elected unopposed today included BJPs Neeraj Shekhar Arun Singh Geeta Shakya Haridwar Dubey Brijlal B L Varma and Seema Dwivedi Samajwadi Partys Ram Gopal Yadav and BSPs Ramji Gautam The term of the newly elected members will be from November 25 2020 to November 24 2026High drama was witnessed on the last day of filing of nomination papers on Tuesday with Samajwadi Party supported independent candidate Prakash Bajaj entering the fray minutes before the deadline His papers were however rejected during scrutiny but not before four signatories of the BSP candidate Ramji Gautams nomination papers claimed that their signatures were forged and gave an affidavit to the Returning Officer in this regardActing tough BSP president Mayawati suspended these four and three others who had allegedly met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav after coming out in the open against the party leadership There are 31 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh of which 22 will now be with the BJP five with the Samajwadi Party and three with the BSP The Congress will have only one seat In Uttarakhand senior BJP leader Naresh Bansal was declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha Bansals election was a mere formality as there was no challenger with the BJP having 57 out of the total 70 seats Bansal replaces Congress Raj Babbar whose tenure in Rajya Sabha ends on November 25Keep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new mid day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever