New Delhi: In the remaining 18 months of the current term of the Narendra Modi government, the composition of the Rajya Sabha will tilt further in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is sure to gain two seats. It will get its first Upper House MP from West Bengal and fill a vacancy from Tripura.
Biennial elections will be held for 12 Rajya Sabha seats in four states between now and April 2024. The seat positions of Goa, Delhi and Sikkim will remain unchanged, but West Bengal will add one seat to the BJP’s tally.
Bypolls to the Rajya Sabha from Tripura will be held this month after BJP’s Manik Saha resigned to become the chief minister of the state. Tripura’s ruling BJP is expected to win this seat.
The party’s position in the Upper House assumes significance as the Modi government is expected to push several legislations ahead of the 2024 national election and dominate the parliamentary debate.
The BJP currently has 91 MPs in the Upper House, while the Congress has 31. Rajya Sabha has 238 elected and 12 appointed members.
Rajya Sabha elections will be held in two states in 2023. In Goa, the BJP will retain its seat and the biennial elections in West Bengal, August 2023, will give the BJP its first Rajya Sabha seat from the state. This will come at the cost of Congress leader Pradeep Bhattacharya’s seat.
In West Bengal, a total of seven seats will be held biennially and the Trinamool Congress will retain the remaining six seats.
In 2024, a few months before the general election, the term of three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi – held by the Aam Aadmi Party – will expire. But with a thumping majority in the Delhi Assembly, it will be easy for AAP to retain all three seats.
The last round of Rajya Sabha elections before the 2024 general election will be held in February 2024 for one seat in Sikkim. State’s ruling party Sikkim Democratic Front is expected to retain the seat.
