After Loksabha, now the battle for Rajyasabha! Know in which states India Alliance will challenge BJP

New Delhi : After the results of the Lok Sabha elections, 10 seats of Rajya Sabha have become vacant. These vacant seats have been notified by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The members of these seats have recently won the Lok Sabha elections. In such a situation, the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections will once again see the contest between NDA vs India. This competition will be tough in two states Maharashtra and Haryana. However, BJP candidates are likely to win the vacant seats of the Upper House in five states.

How many seats in which state?

The Election Commission has not yet announced the dates for the Rajya Sabha elections for these 10 seats. However, out of the 10 seats on which elections will be held, 7 were with the BJP, 2 with the Congress and one with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Both Congress and RJD are major components of the India Block. Among the BJP Rajya Sabha MPs who won the Lok Sabha elections, three Union Ministers are Sarbananda Sonowal from Assam, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Madhya Pradesh and Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra. On the other hand, out of the vacant seats, there are two seats each in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra and one seat each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura.

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Where is the challenge for BJP?

The BJP has enough numbers in the respective assemblies to retain both the Rajya Sabha seats in Assam and one each in Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Bihar, both the BJP and the RJD will be able to win one seat each. The NDA and India Alliance have adequate numbers in the assembly. However, the BJP may face a tough challenge in the elections to be held for the vacant seats in Maharashtra and Haryana. The current strength of the 90-member Haryana Assembly has now come down to 87. While the BJP has 41 members, the Congress has 29 members. Congress’ Mullana MLA Varun Chaudhary was elected to the Lok Sabha from Ambala. The Dushyant Chautala-led JJP, with which the BJP broke ties just before the Lok Sabha elections, has 10 MLAs. On the other hand, there are five independent MLAs and one MLA each from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP). Independent MLA from Badshahpur Rakesh Daulatabad died last month. Another independent MLA, Ranjit Singh, had resigned from his/her assembly membership to join the BJP and contest the Lok Sabha elections on its ticket from Hisar. he/she lost to Jai Prakash of the Congress.

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Congress’s expectation equation

In Haryana, the BJP’s tally rises to 43 due to the support of independent MLA Nayan Pal Rawat and HLP MLA Gopal Kanda. The remaining 44 MLAs appear to be in the opposition camp, at least on paper, including 29 Congress and 10 JJP MLAs. Of the remaining four independent MLAs, three MLAs Sombir Sangwan (Dadri), Randhir Singh Golen (Pundri) and Dharampal Gondar (Nilokheri) have announced support to the Congress. Another independent MLA from Meham, Balraj Kundu, has supported neither the BJP nor the Congress. INLD’s Abhay Chautala has also not yet announced support to any party. The Congress hopes that if it gets the support of all the opposition MLAs, it can defeat the BJP in Haryana, although this does not seem possible. In the Rajya Sabha elections to be held for two seats from Haryana in June 2022, the Congress had enough numbers, but its then candidate Ajay Maken could not win due to cross voting.

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Tough fight in Maharashtra

In Maharashtra too, the contest is going to be tough for the BJP as both its NDA allies – Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – have expressed their disagreement over not getting cabinet berths in the new NDA government at the Centre. The Shiv Sena, which won seven Lok Sabha seats, is unhappy that other NDA allies with fewer seats have got cabinet berths. The NCP was offered a Minister of State (MoS) post, which it did not accept as the party wanted a Cabinet post. The Shiv Sena has got a MoS (Independent Charge) post. The India Alliance in Maharashtra comprises the Congress, Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) faction and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT). The Congress leaders whose election to the Lok Sabha has led to the vacancy of two Rajya Sabha seats include KC Venugopal (Rajasthan) and Deepender Hooda (Haryana).