Ending Congress’s decades old run, BJP is now the single largest party in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: Under Modi and Shah’s leadership, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has achieved another landmark. BJP is today the single largest party in Rajya Sabha, greater than Congress, greater than each party.

This is historical achievement as none other than Congress has achieved it in the past. BJP has in fact ended the Congress’s over six decades run as the biggest party in Rajya Sabha.

Sampathiya Uikey, the new lawmaker from Madhya Pradesh took oath following which the BJP touched 58-member mark yesterday. Ms Uikey was elected unopposed in a by-election for the Rajya Sabha seat held by union minister Anil Madhav Dave, who died in May this year.

The Congress party has 57 MPs in in the 245-seat Upper House of Parliament. The Congress numbers wend south by the death this year of two MPs.

The BJP-led government is however short of a majority in Rajya Sabha. Next year the BJP will win eight of nine Uttar Pradesh seats that will be vacated.

Next Tuesday, elections will be held for nine Rajya Sabha seats, six in West Bengal and three in Gujarat, but these may not affect the BJP’s upper hand. The party is set to win at least two seats for which its MPs’ terms end in Gujarat.

In Bengal, the term of two Congress MPs ends, but Congress can win back only one seat, with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress set to send five lawmakers to the Upper House.

BJP-led NDA at present relies on the support of friendly regional parties like Tamil Nadu’s AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal in Rajya Sabha for smooth sail of bills.The BJP’s new partnership with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United in Bihar is expected to help too, though there has been no announcement yet of an alignment at the Centre. The JDU has 10 lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is also Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, said the BJP becoming the Number 1 party is a “natural consequence of our support base increasing”. “We are in power in most states and since the Rajya Sabha is a council of the states, the strength of the BJP has to be reflected,” he said. The minister was confident that his party’s “base will increase in every election”.