Rajya Sabha polls: NDA vs INDIA showdown likely in these two states

The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), have reportedly been unhappy with the BJP for not getting Cabinet berths.

The recent general election has left 10 vacancies in the Rajya Sabha after members from the upper house got elected to the Lok Sabha.

According to a Rajya Sabha secretariat notification, the vacancies include two each in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and one each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura.

Of these vacant seats, seven were held by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two by Congress and one by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).The members who are moving from Rajya Sabha to the Lok Sabha include Deepender Singh Hooda (Haryana), KC Venugopal (Rajasthan), Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam) and Jyotiraditya Scindia (Madhya Pradesh).

BJP's current strength in the Rajya Sabha is 97. The number is expected to go down if the members who have been elected to the Lok Sabha give up their Rajya Sabha membership.

Presently, BJP, which is the single largest party in Rajya Sabha, has enough strength in the legislative assemblies of Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to win the seats from these seats.

The BJP and RJD are also expected to win one seat in Bihar since both NDA and INDIA have adequate numbers in the state assembly. However, Haryana and Maharashtra may witness a tough fight between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and INDIA bloc for the three Rajya Sabha seats.

Divided house in Haryana

The current strength of the 90-member Haryana assembly is 87. While the BJP has 41 members, the Congress has 29 and the Dushyant Chautala-led JJP has 10 MLAs.

Notably, JJP broke ties with BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, there are five independent legislators and one MLA each from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP).

The Independent MLA from Badshahpur, Rakesh Daultabad, passed away last month. Another Independent legislator Ranjit Singh had resigned.With that, BJP’s strength will reach 43 with the support of Independent MLA Nayan Pal Rawat and an HLP MLA Gopal Kanda.

The remaining 44 MLAs are from the opposition, including 29 from Congress and 10 from JJP.

The Congress is eyeing the support of all the opposition MLAs to defeat the BJP in Haryana.However, six JJP MLAs are upset with Dushyant. Two of them — Jogiram Sihag and Ram Niwas Surjakhera — have announced their support for the BJP. Thus, Congress can only clinch the lone vacant Rajya Sabha seat in the state if the entire opposition rallies behind it.

Alliance tussle in Maharashtra

Both its NDA allies in the state, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), have reportedly been unhappy with the BJP for not getting Cabinet berths in the Modi 3.0 Cabinet.

Shinde's Shiv Sena won seven Lok Sabha seats in the elections but other NDA allies with fewer seats (LJP-RV, etc) got the Cabinet berths.The NCP was offered a minister of state (MoS) post, which it did not accept.

The Shiv Sena has got one MoS (independent charge) berth.the discord may impact the Maharashtra assembly numbers during the Rajya Sabha polls.Moreover, the Mahayuti alliance led by BJP has also come into the question after an RSS mouthpiece said that joining hands with Ajit Pawar affected the saffron party in the state.

This internal discord casts a shadow over the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, despite efforts by the Mahayuti to dismiss talks of a rift and present a united front. On the other hand, the INDIA bloc parties - Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) - are hoping to benefit from the rift and scoop up a Rajya Sabha seat from the state.