BJP Remains the Largest Party in Rajya Sabha Increasing Tally After RS Poll: Congress Loses 4 Seats
BHARATIYA Janata Party is the major gainer after the just concluded Rajya Sabha biennial polls declared on Friday. BJP’s tally in the Upper House of Parliament had increased from 58 to 69 after winning 28 of the 59 seats for which results were declared. Congress won 10 seats, a loss of four seats from its current tally of 54.The ruling BJP has won nine out of ten Rajya Sabha elections from India’s most populous State of Uttar Pradesh boosting the morale of the party’s leaders and activisists after it had lost the recent two Lok Sabha bye-polls in the State. Yesteryear Bollywood actor Jaya Bachchan, daughter of noted journalist Tarun Bahadur ,who was mostly based in northern India, and wife of iconic veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan, has been re-elected for second term as a Samajwadi Party’s candidate. But the Bahujan Samajwadi Party’s candidate supported by Akhilesh Yadav led SP has lost to BJP candidate Anil Kumar Agrawal. BPJ’s ninth candidate has won on second preference votes .BJP has also wrested from Congress a seat each in Uttarakhand and Haryana and lost two seats to Congress in Gujarat, where it could win only two of the four seats.
In West Bengal, TMC bags four seats and helped Congress leader Manu Singhvi win. Manu Singhvi was earlier elected from Rajasthan which is under BJP regime and hence, Congress had no chance of getting him re-elected. Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee volunteered to get him elected the lawyer turned politician from her State. Ruling TRS of Telengana has won 3 seats and in poll bound Karnataka, Congress bags 3 seats and BJP one. The JD(S) had boycotted Rajya Sabha election in the southern state alleging malpractice. The successful candidates are Congress’ Dr L Hanumanthaiah, Dr SN Hussain and GC Chandrasekhar and the BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar has won after a complaint lodged by the JD(S) delaying the counting. The BJP’s winning MPs from UP are Arun Jaitley, Anil Jain, Ashok Bajpai, Harnath Singh Yadav, GVL Narsimha Rao, Kanta Kardam, Sakal Deep Rajbhar,Vijaya Pal Singh Tomar and Anil Kumar Agarawal.BSP’s Ambedkar managed 33 first preference votes against 22 votes polled by the BJP-supported Agrawal who won due to the overwhelming second preference and third preference votes.The BSP’s Unnao MLA voted for the BJP. Jailed MLAs Mukhtar Ansari of the BSP and Hariom Yadav of the SP being denied permission to vote also ruined the chances of BSP’s Ambedkar. The SP, Congress and RLD all voted for the BSP nominee, but the party was let down by its own MLA. In West Bengal, although Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress the other winning candidates are ruling TMC s Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Md Nadimul Haq and Santanu Sen. For Nadimul Haq, it will be his second consecutive term in the Rajya Sabha. BJP National general secretary Saroj Pandey has won the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Chhattisgarh defeating Congress rival Lekhram Sahu.Telangana’s ruling TRS bagged all three seats. B Prakash, J Santosh Kumar and AB Lingaiah Yadav were elected to the Upper House. Congress candidate P Balram Naik lost. Left Front-backed MP Veerendra Kumar, 80, won the RS by-election from Kerala against Congress’ Babu Prasad.(image- NDTV)