New Delhi:
The ruling NDA today crossed the majority mark in the Rajya Sabha as nine BJP members and two allies were elected unopposed in the Upper House by-elections. With nine, the BJP's strength has reached 96, taking the NDA to 112 in the Upper House. Three others who were elected unopposed included one each from Ajit Pawar's faction and the Rashtriya Lok Manch's NDA ally NCP faction. The ruling coalition also has the support of six nominated and one independent members.
A Congress member was also elected, bringing the opposition to 85 in the upper house.
The Rajya Sabha has 245 seats, although there are currently eight vacancies – four from Jammu and Kashmir and four nominated. With the current strength of the House at 237, the majority mark is 119.
BJP candidates elected unopposed include Mission Ranjan Das and Rameshwar Teli from Assam, Manan Kumar Mishra from Bihar, Kiran Chowdhury from Haryana, George Korin from Madhya Pradesh, Dhiriya Shail Patil from Maharashtra, Mamata Mohanta from Odisha, Ronit Singh from Rajasthan. Bittu and Rajeev Singh are included. Bhattacharjee from Tripura.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi of Congress was elected unopposed from Telangana. NCP's Ajit Pawar faction's Nitin Patil was elected from Maharashtra and RLM's Upendra Kushwaha made it to the upper house from Bihar.
The majority mark in the Rajya Sabha, which the NDA has been striving for for a decade, will make the passage of controversial bills painful.
Over the years, large opposition groups have often blocked controversial government bills in the upper house. Some of them could be passed with the help of non-aligned parties like Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal and YS Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress.
But now, with both parties having lost power in their respective states – one to the BJP and one to its ally Chandrababu Naidu – their support cannot be relied upon.