The biennial elections were held for 57 vacant seats of which 30 got elected unopposed, leaving polling for only 27 seats.
Modi government got a shot in the arm after the conclusion of Rajya Sabha polls for 27 seats, with gap between the Congress and BJP narrowing down to barely 3 seats. In polls held in seven states, BJP swept 12 of the 27 Rajya Sabha seats while Congress had to contend with only 6 seats.
The biennial elections were held for 57 vacant seats of which 30 got elected unopposed, leaving polling for only 27 seats.
Riding on spectacular wins in Rajasthan, Haryana, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, BJP will now have 54 members in the Upper House which is just three short of Congress' 57. During the Budget session, the Congress had 64 members as against BJP's 49.
The new composition of 245-member strong Rajya Sabha puts BJP in a much better position to push some of its legislations that have been hanging fire largely on account of opposition from the Congress.
All four candidates of BJP including union cabinet minister Venkaiah Naidu got elected from Rajasthan. Opposition-backed Kamal Morarka failed to win as he could not garner eight extra votes he needed and thus the BJP romped home in all four seats.
The biggest upset wins for the BJP were that of party-backed media baron Dr Subhash Chandra in Haryana and industrialist Mahesh Poddar in Jharkhand.
Election of Dr Chandra against senior advocate RK Anand came as a big surprise. Anand lost despite backing from both Indian National Lok Dal and Congress giving him a clear lead. The unexpected result comes amidst 14 votes being declared invalid on account of using the wrong ink.
Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman was the lone BJP member elected from Karnataka where the rest of three seats – Jairam Ramesh, Oscar Fernandes and K C Ramamurthy – were bagged by the Congress.
In Jharkhand, the BJP won both the seats, the first going to union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and the second to Mahesh Poddar, who defeated Basant Soren, younger son of JMM supremo Shibu Soren.
In UP, the Samajwadi Party romped home winning all seven seats it contested. Mayawati's BSP bagged two seats besides helping Congress Kapil Sibal with its spare votes. The last of the 11 seats went to the BJP.
Dr Chandra wins
Former chairman of Diligent Media Corporation Limited (DMCL) and noted philanthropist Dr Subhash Chandra got elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana. In a closely contested election, Dr Subhash Chandra, an independent candidate supported by the BJP, secured 29 votes as against the 21 bagged by his opponent RK Anand, who was backed by both Congress and the INLD.
Disclaimer: DMCL, that owns the dna newspaper, has conflict of interest in the story as Dr Subhash Chandra is former chairman of the Zee Group, of which DMCL is part of
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