BJP-led NDA only four seats short of majority in Rajya Sabha
With the latest wins and once all the 56 members take oath, the NDA strength in the upper house of parliament will be 117, with BJP itself accounting for 97
After winning 30 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA is only four seats short of the majority mark of 121 in the Rajya Sabha. On Tuesday, the BJP won 10 Rajya Sabha seats, including an additional seat in Uttar Pradesh and an unexpected seat, through draw of lots, in Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP had earlier won 20 Rajya Sabha seats unopposed. A total of 56 of the 240 Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant in April.
Four less
With the latest wins and once all the 56 members take oath, the NDA strength in the upper house of parliament will touch 117, with the BJP itself accounting for 97.
The BJP is the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha with 97 members, including five nominated MPs who joined the party. The Congress comes second with 29 members.
There are five vacancies in the Rajya Sabha including four from Jammu and Kashmir.
Cross-voting
The Rajya Sabha elections for 15 seats in three states were marked by cross-voting, with the BJP winning 10 seats, the Congress three and the Samajwadi Party two seats.
The biggest surprise came from Himachal Pradesh where Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost after six MLAs cross-voted in the election. The BJP's Harsh Mahajan was declared the winner in a draw of lots after both he and Singhvi won an equal number of 34 votes.
UP battle
The BJP won eight seats in Uttar Pradesh while the Samajwadi Party, which had put up three candidates, could win only two seats.
The eight BJP winners in Uttar Pradesh are former Union Minister RPN Singh, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangeeta Balwant, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, Sadhna Singh, Naveen Jain and Sanjay Seth.
Jaya Bachchan and Ramji Lal Suman were the Samajwadi Party winners.
Congress in Karnataka
The results in Karnataka were on expected lines with the ruling Congress winning three seats and the BJP one after a BJP MLA, ST Somashekar, voted in favour of the Congress.
