BJP fell 100 in Rajya Sabha, but will return again, understand the maths

New Delhi : A month after the first century in the Rajya Sabha, the number of BJP seats in the Upper House has now come down to less than 100. Due to the retirement of 5 nominated Rajya Sabha members of the BJP in the last 10 days, the number of MPs of the party in the house has now been reduced to 95. However, the party may soon again score a century of seats. Let us understand what is the arithmetic of seats in the Upper House and how BJP’s seats can reach three digits again.

BJP’s seats in Rajya Sabha can once again reach three digits. The reason for this is that at present the central government can nominate 7 MPs. It depends on the members to be nominated whether they take membership of BJP or remain neutral after nomination. Such MPs are nominated by the President and generally the ruling party has the support of the nominated MPs.

Mathematics of seats in Rajya Sabha
The total strength of Rajya Sabha is 245 but at present there are 229 members. Thus 16 seats are still vacant. Of these, 7 are nominated. 4 Jammu and Kashmir, 2 Bihar and 1 each from Karnataka, Telangana and Odisha are vacant. The BJP is the single largest party in the Rajya Sabha with 95 seats, while the Congress has 29 and the TMC has 13.

Current Status of Rajya Sabha

BJP can reach three digits in Rajya Sabha again
Before the presidential election in July, the government has to fill the 7 seats vacant of the nominated category MPs. Actually, 12 members are nominated by the President in the 245-seat Rajya Sabha. These are personalities associated with the field of art, literature, science or social service. Such members are called nominated or nominated members. Elections are held for the rest of the members. Out of the 12 nominated members from 2016 to 2022, 9 joined the BJP. Currently, 4 out of 5 nominated members are part of BJP, barring former CJI Ranjan Gogoi. These are- Ram Sakal, Rakesh Sinha, Sonal Mansingh and Mahesh Jethmalani.

The nominated members who have retired from the Rajya Sabha in the last 10 days include Subramanian Swamy, Mary Kom, Swapan Dasgupta, Roopa Ganguly, Suresh Gopi, Narendra Jadhav and Sambhaji Chhatrapati. Barring Jadhav and Mary Kom, all of them had joined BJP.

BJP will get the benefit of victory in the recent assembly elections
Elections can be held for 53 seats of Rajya Sabha in June-July. 20 MPs are retiring in June and 33 MPs in July. Due to the victory in the recent assembly elections, BJP will be able to retain its seats in the coming Rajya Sabha elections. Of the 53 seats falling vacant till June-July, 11 are from UP.