BJP eyes gain in biennial elections to 57 seats of RS

With Election Commission announcing biennial elections to 57 seats of Rajya Sabha from 15 states on June 11, the BJP hopes to add numbers in the Upper House where the NDA is in a minority.

The notification for the polls will be issued on May 24 and the last date for filing nominations would end 8 days later, the EC said.

Fourteen outgoing members each are from the BJP and the Congress. The BJP is expected to gain 6 more seats – majority coming from Rajasthan and Maharashtra – apart from replacing existing 13 members whose terms expire between June and August.

The NDA is not confident of retaining the lone vacant seat of Uttarakhand, which is now occupied by former RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya editor Tarun Vijay. The Congress is expected to wrest the seat from the BJP, now that the Harish Rawat government has returned to power after winning the floor test to undo President’s rule imposed by the Centre.

The Opposition had charged the BJP with trying to topple the Rawat government to retain the RS seat, which is crucial to the Modi government for pushing through important legislations in Parliament. After adding another six members recently via the nomination route, the ruling dispensation’s tally has gone up to 19.

Besides, NDA ally TDP's strength will go up by 2 more seats from Andhra Pradesh, which it is ruling, creating 4 vacancies for polls.