69 Rajya Sabha MPs retiring this year, BJP to gain strength

BJP will breathe easy in Rajya Sabha before 2019 general elections as NDA will corner a lion’s share when elections are held for 69 falling vacant in 2018 even as it will get no seat from Delhi from where three MPs of Upper House are retiring on January 27.

This will be a big relief for the BJP-led government, which has been finding it difficult to push its measures in Parliament owing to its poor strength and Opposition parties coming together to browbeat it.

Besides, the change of political demography in Rajya Sabha, 2018 could see dip in star punch of Upper House membership as while the term of Bollybood heartthrob Rekha and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar comes to an end on April 26, Jaya Bachchan from Samajwadi Party will retire on April 2.

With the thin attendance of both Rekha and Tendulkar having invited repeated criticism in the House, it remains to be seen who are nominated in their place.

Both the ruling BJP and the main Opposition Congress have 57 seats each in Upper House, whose current strength is 238. Samajwadi Party with 18 MPs is the third largest block followed by 13 from AIADMK , 12 from AIADMK, 08 from Biju Janata Dal and 07 from CPI-M.

The seats falling vacant after the retirement of Congress members Janardan Dwivedi, Parvej Hashmi and Karan Singh on January 27, are all set to filled by Aam Aadmi Party, which enjoys a brute majority in Delhi assembly.

But the scene will be different in other states. The most striking difference will be felt in Uttar Pradesh from nine Rajya Sabha MPs will retire on April 2. One seat is already vacant here after the resignation of Manohar Parrikkar, who quit as Defence Minister to become Goa Chief Minister. Hence elections will be held for ten seats in UP this year. Out of the nine members retiring, Samajwadi Party had six and one each from BJP Congress and BSP.  After BJP’s sweep in UP Assembly polls this year ( 312 of 403 seats), the majority of the nine seats will go to the saffron party. BSP has just 19 seats, which makes it difficult for its chief Mayawati to stage a comeback to Rajya Sabha while Samajwadi Party with its kitty of 47 seats decides to back her. 

After Uttar Pradesh, the second maximum lot of renomination will take place in Bihar and Maharashtra from where six each members are to be nominated. In Bihar, the political scenario has gone for a change after Nitish Kumar junked the grand alliance with Congress and RJD and joined the NDA bandwagon. But this does not change Rajya Sabha elections much as BJP and JDU together held all the five seats while the sixth is vacant.

As far as the five seats each from West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh are concerned, not much change will happen there owing to no change in prevailing political situation there. CPI-M member Tapan Kumar Sen and three Trinamool Congress MPs are retiring in April while one more seat is vacant from West Bengal.

Gujarat from where all the four Rajya Sabha MPs including Arun Jaitley, whose term is coming to an end in April, could see some change in the fortunes of Congress, which has increased its tally in the Gujarat assembly from 61 to 77 last month after the conclusion of the state polls.

Out of six seats falling vacant in Karnata, NCP and Congress each had two members while BJP and Shiv Sena one each. The situation will reverse in favour of BJP this time but the tantrums Shiv Sena has been playing with the ally partners and the unpredictability of Congress ally NCP leaves the options wide open there. The lone seat of Haryana, which was with Congress will go to BJP while it will retain the one seat in Himachal Pradesh from where Health Minister JP Nadda’s term is coming to an end.