Rajya Sabha elections, all 12 candidates elected unopposed; NDA will get majority in the Upper House for the first time

New Delhi. All the candidates will be elected unopposed in the Rajya Sabha by-elections to be held on 12 seats in nine states. On the last day of nomination, Wednesday, no additional candidate filed nomination in any state. The Election Commission will announce the result on the last date of withdrawal of nomination on August 27. After the results are declared, 11 of these 12 seats will go to the NDA, which will give it a majority in the Upper House.

In fact, there were indications that Congress could field a candidate for the only seat in Haryana. However, on the last day of nomination, no one filed nomination except BJP candidate Kiran Chaudhary. Apart from this, one candidate each filed nomination for one seat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Telangana, Odisha and Tripura, while two candidates each filed nomination from Bihar, Assam and Maharashtra. The Commission will now wait for the last date of August 27 to declare the results after examining the nomination papers on Thursday.

NDA will get majority
After the results are out, for the first time, the BJP-led NDA will get majority in the Upper House. It is worth noting that currently 20 seats of Rajya Sabha are vacant. After the by-elections on 12 seats, the total capacity of the members of the Upper House will be 237. Apart from this, four seats of Jammu and Kashmir are vacant due to non-conduct of assembly elections, while members have not been nominated on the same number of seats. After the results, the number of BJP members will increase from 87 to 97 (104 with nominated and independents) while the number of NDA members will be 119. This number fulfills the condition of majority in the 237-member Rajya Sabha after the elections.

Who filed nomination where
On the last day of nomination, Abhishek Manu Singhvi filed nomination papers in Telangana, Ravneet Singh Bittu in Rajasthan, George Kurien in Madhya Pradesh, Manan Kumar Mishra and Upendra Kushwaha in Bihar, Kiran Chaudhary in Haryana, Mamta Mohanta in Odisha, Nitin Patel and Dhairyasheel Patil in Maharashtra, Rameshwar Teli and Mission Ranjan Das in Assam.

Why is Congress at a loss?

In the Lok Sabha elections, Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan KC Venugopal was elected from Kerala. RJD MP from Bihar Misa Bharti and Deepender Hooda reached the Lok Sabha after being elected from their home states. In the assembly of these states, BJP either has a majority or the numbers are with it. In such a situation, BJP will win all these three seats.