NDA becomes the largest alliance in Rajya Sabha

With the declaration of  Rajya Sabha election results, the ruling NDA  headed by the BJP  has emerged as the largest party in the  242-Member  Upper House of Parliament replacing the Congress which had dominated the House for several years. The oldest political party of India has now  38 seats. In Uttar Pradesh, all 10 candidates have been declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. The NDA tally will now be 104 and it can rely on the support of four nominated members. Among those elected from UP are eight BJP candidates and one each from Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. They have been declared elected unopposed to the upper house by the Returning Officer. The BJP candidates declared elected include Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Arun Singh, Haridwar Dubey, Brij Lal, Neeraj Shekhar, Geeta Shakya, Seema Dwivedi, and BL Varma. Prof Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP’s Ramji Gautam were also elected to the Upper House. All candidates except Hardeep Singh Puri and Prof Ram Gopal Yadav received their certificates from Returning Officer Ashok Kumar yesterday evening. With the results declared the ruling alliance also has some smaller parties like RPI-Athawale, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Mizo National Front (MNF), National People’s Party (NPP), Naga People’s Front (NPF), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF)  who together have seven seats. With inputs from Mint.