Main Opposition will be reduced to 58 seats and BJP will have 52 representatives
Biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats on June 11 are set to reduce numbers of the main Opposition Congress marginally, but will hardly affect the overall composition of the House, where ruling BJP will continue to be in a minority. One seat each from Rajasthan and Karnataka vacated by Anand Sharma (Congress) and Vijay Mallya (Independent) respectively will also go for polls.
The Congress will continue to remain single-largest party in the 245-member House, but the BJP will narrow the gap. The Congress numbers will come down from 64 to 58 while the BJP's strength will go up from 49 to 52.
The BJP will also get the additional support of the seven new nominated members as well, taking its tally to 59. The Opposition has used its strength in Upper House to stall government's economic reform agenda over past two years. The strength of the Janata Dal (United) is set to come down from five to two as it now has to share seats with Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Out of the total 57 seats, a majority of 14 each belong to BJP and Congress. While six members belong to BSP, five are from JD(U), three each from SP, BJD and AIADMK. Two members each belong to DMK, NCP and TDP, while one member belongs to Shiv Sena. While a maximum of 11 members are retiring from Uttar Pradesh, six seats each will go for polls from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
From Bihar, five seats will go to polls, four each from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, three each from Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, two each are from Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. One seat from Uttarakhand will also go for poll, the Election Commission said.
Congress has fielded three senior advocates as its candidates –former home and finance minister P Chidambaram(70) from Maharashtra, former HRD minister Kapil Sibal(67) from Uttar Pradesh and former additional solicitor general Vivek Tankha(59) from Madhya Pradesh. It also decided to repeat general secretary Ambika Soni (73) from Punjab and former union ministers Oscar Fernandes (75) and Jairam Ramesh (62) from Karnataka.
Two others nominated for the Rajya Sabha elections are former Lok Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta (57) from Uttarakhand and Chhaya Verma, a former Raipur district Panchayat chief who contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully from Chhattisgarh.
The Congress has got a bonus of one seat after the Supreme Court restored the Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand, however, its ally the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) has announced its own candidate against Congress official nominee Pradeep Tamta. The six-member PDF went into a huddle at cabinet minister Harish Chandra Durgapal's residence late Sunday night, and announced Dinesh Dhanaiand 's candidature.
Prabhu to file his nomination from AP
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who joined the BJP and the Modi government quitting Shiv Sena, has been moved from Haryana to Andhra Pradesh to enter the Rajya Sabha this time. Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was elected last time from Andhra Pradesh has been shifted to Karnataka. Since BJP doesn't have strength in Andhra Pradesh, Prabhu will get support from Telgu Desam Party of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
The party released a list of its six more Rajya Sabha candidates that also include its spokesman and journalist M J Akbar who will contest this time from Madhya Pradesh. He was elected to the Upper House from Jharkhand last time.
Vinay Shashtrabuddhe is the third national vice-president to get the Rajya Sabha berth from Maharashtra, other two being Om Prakash Mathur from Rajasthan and Purushottam Rupala (sitting) from Gujarat. Dr Vikas Mahatme, a Padma Shri and noted eye surgeon of Nagpur, is the party's other candidate from Maharashtra besides Power Minister Piyush Goyal. Other two names announced are: Shiv Pratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh and Mahesh Poddar from Jharkhand.
The party also nominated its three candidates for the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) besides Surjit Thakur announced in the first list. They are: Pravin Darekar, Sada Bhau Khot and Vinayak Mete.
In the first list announced on Sunday, a surprise nomination from Bihar was Gopal Narayan Singh, a former state BJP president, instead of Sushil Modi, who was projected all this time as joining the union cabinet. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who was last time elected from Karnataka, has been shifted to Rajasthan. Another minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is seeking re-election from Jharkhand instead of Uttar Pradesh.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "sonia-rahul")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}