The ruling NDA reached the majority mark in the Rajya Sabha today as nine BJP members and two from allied parties were elected unopposed in the by-elections for the upper house. With these new members, the BJP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has increased to 96, bringing the total for the NDA to 112 seats. The newly elected members include one each from the NDA allies: the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar and the Rashtriya Lok Manch (RLM). The ruling alliance also has the support of six nominated members and one independent member.
Additionally, one Congress member was elected unopposed, bringing the opposition’s total to 85 seats in the upper house.
The Rajya Sabha has a total of 245 seats, but currently, there are eight vacancies—four from Jammu and Kashmir and four nominated positions. With the house’s current strength at 237 members, the majority mark is set at 119.
The BJP candidates elected unopposed include Mission Ranjan Dass and Rameshwar Teli from Assam, Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar, Kiran Chadhary from Haryana, George Kurien from Madhya Pradesh, Dhirya Sheel Patil from Maharashtra, Mamata Mohanta from Odisha, Ravneet Singh Bittu from Rajasthan, and Rajeev Bhattacharjee from Tripura.
Among the allies, Nitin Patil from the NCP Ajit Pawar faction was elected from Maharashtra, and Upendra Kushwaha from the Rashtriya Lok Manch was elected from Bihar. Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi was elected unopposed from Telangana.
Achieving a majority in the Rajya Sabha, a goal the NDA has pursued for a decade, will make passing contentious bills much easier for the government. In the past, strong opposition numbers in the upper house often stalled such bills. Some could only be passed with support from non-aligned parties like Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress. However, with both parties losing power in their respective states—one to the BJP and the other to its ally Chandrababu Naidu—their support can no longer be relied upon.