As BJP made its presence felt in the Rajya Sabha elections, the NDA’s tally jumped to 118 in the Upper House, just three short of majority. The good show by the BJP, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, served as a tonic for party workers and also swelled its own strength in the House to 97. Altogether, the party managed to win 30 of the 56 seats in this round of RS elections, two more than its legislative strength entitles it to.
The party’s growing heft in the Upper House should make legislative business in the House an easy ride if the Narendra Modi government expectedly returns to power for a third straight term in May. The Congress was left licking its wound in Himachal Pradesh as, helped by cross voting, the BJP-led NDA won 10 Rajya Sabha seats out of the 15, for which voting was held across three states.
The crucial show of tactical floor management in Himachal and Uttar Pradesh Assemblies, where the BJP managed to get its candidates elected despite unfavourable numbers, is nothing less than a trophy or a moral victory for the saffron party over the INDI Alliance just weeks before the Lok Sabha elections. The fact that the drama in Himachal Pradesh unfolded around the time when Rahul Gandhi is taking out his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, has rubbed salt into Congress’ wounds.
Home Minister Amit Shah summed up the RS election outcome by saying that the Congress and the I.N.D.I.A bloc are disintegrating. “They don’t know how to keep their house in order and can’t remain together,” he said. While the NDA benefitted from cross-voting in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh and BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, it suffered a setback in Karnataka where a party MLA supported the Congress nominee.
In the process of winning the tightly contested lone RS seat in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP virtually managed to demonstrate that the Congress government had slipped into minority with 9 cross votes being cast in favour of the saffron outfit’s candidate. The Congress managed to pass the state Budget, a day after the shock RS election outcome, only after the Speaker disqualified 15 BJP MLAs from the House.
As a fallout of cross-voting in RS elections, Speaker Kuldeep Pathania disqualified the six rebels from the House to restore order in the Congress camp and to ensure that Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu remains in the CM’s seat, despite a section of the Congress MLAs raising a banner of revolt. Like on earlier occasions, the current Rajya Sabha elections in the three states turned out to be an opportunity for the BJP to expose cracks in the rival camp and winning support for its nominees from members of the rival I.N.D.I Alliance parties, including Congress and Samajwadi Party.
By the end of the day, the BJP seemed to have emerged stronger from the RS polling as its floor management gave it an upper hand in mind games just weeks ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. During voting for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, seven Samajwadi Party legislators were involved in cross voting. In the final count, the BJP won 8 RS seats, while the SP won 2 seats, including that of Jaya Bachchan and Ramji Lal Suman. Alok Ranjan of the SP lost to the eighth BJP candidate, Sanjay Seth.
In a setback for the SP, Maharaji Prajapati, party MLA from Amethi, did not vote. According to sources, those SP MLAs who voted for the BJP include Rakesh Pandey, Abhay Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Manoj Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi, Pooja Pal and Ashutosh Maurya. One SBSP MLA and one from Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party voted for the BJP.
In all, 395 votes were cast, out of the total 396 votes. Earlier in the morning, the SP received a setback when, ahead of elections, the party’s chief whip, Manoj Pandey, resigned. The BJP—with 252 seats, as well as 18 from allies—had fielded eight candidates. The SP, which has 108 MLAs, fielded three. The BJP only had votes to fill seven seats, but banked upon votes from the Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal to register upset wins. For the lone RS seat in Himachal Pradesh, nine legislators, including six from the ruling Congress and three independents, cross-voted, raising questions about the stability of the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government. For the sole Rajya Sabha seat the Congress fielded Abhishek Manu Singhvi and the BJP named Harsh Mahajan.
The Congress had a clear majority with 40 out of 68 MLAs and the support of three independent MLAs. Despite the fact that the BJP, with 25 MLAs, was far behind in the numbers’ game, it forced a contest by fielding ex-Congress MLA Mahajan against Singhvi. The scores were tied at 34-34 in the House for 68 legislators, leaving the matter to be settled through a draw of lots in favour of Mahajan. Sources said Singhvi was seen as an outsider by some Congress MLAs who backed the BJP candidate. The six Congress legislators who went against the party whip were also reportedly unhappy with ill-treatment by the party despite their seniority in the outfit.
Interestingly, six MLAs from the hill state were spotted in Haryana’s Panchkula in the evening, claiming that they were there for excursion. Sukhu, however, claimed they had been escorted to Panchkula by central security forces. Addressing the media after his defeat, Singhvi congratulated Mahajan but asked the BJP to introspect why it fielded an RS candidate despite having just 25 MLAs in a 68-member House in which the Congress has 40 MLAs. He, in a veiled manner, slammed the BJP for engineering cross voting in the RS polls.
In Karnataka, the ruling Congress registered victory on three seats in the Rajya Sabha elections, while the BJP managed to win one. All three Congress candidates from Karnataka, Ajay Maken, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekhar registered victories. Ajay Maken got 47 votes, while both Dr Syed Naseer Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekhar received a total of 46 votes each. In a setback to the BJP-JD(S) alliance, BJP MLA S.T. Somashekar voted for the Congress during the Rajya Sabha elections.
However, BJP nominee Narayansa Bandage managed to secure victory. Somashekar’s vote in favour of the Congress proved fatal for the BJPJDS candidate Kupendra Reddy. The Congress has 134 MLAs, while the BJP has 66 and the JDS 19. The Congress also claims the support of two independent lawmakers. Before the voting in three states on Tuesday, a total of 41 seats in the Upper House were filled unopposed. The list of new MPs includes former Congress boss Sonia Gandhi, BJP boss J.P. Nadda, and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L. Murugan, as well as Maharashtra strongman and former Congress leader Ashok Chavan who has now joined the BJP.