Elections were held for 16 Rajya Sabha seats on Friday, in which BJP won 8 seats. Congress won five, Shiv Sena on one, NCP on one and one seat went to the independent candidate. In Haryana, senior Congress leader Ajay Maken lost the election to independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma, which dealt a blow to the Congress.
Senior BJP leader and cabinet minister Nirmala Sitharaman won from Karnataka and Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra. But the party suffered a major setback in Rajasthan, where it has started preparations for next year’s assembly elections. Dholpur MLA Shobharani Kushwaha cross-voted for the Congress candidate, leading to the defeat of the party-backed independent candidate.
After winning 4 out of 13 seats in the elections held on March 31, the BJP’s tally reached 101 (this included nominated members). BJP became the first party after 1988 to achieve this feat. After the party’s Punjab MP Shwet Malik retired in April, the number came down to 100. With Friday’s victory, the party’s strength in the Rajya Sabha will increase to 95. When the President nominates new members, this number will cross 100.
BJP won 3 seats in Maharashtra. A BJP leader from Maharashtra told The Indian Express that the party has won a big moral victory over the Maha Vikas Aghadi for the first time after a long time. The senior leader said, “The loss of one of our candidates would have meant that the BJP has not learned anything since 2019, when the Shiv Sena broke away and joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form the government. Despite all the efforts of BJP in the state, the party had not been able to come back politically since then. This will definitely bring the party back on track and the differences between the leaders will also come down.”
In Rajasthan, Congress won 3 candidates while BJP could win only 1 seat. Subhash Chandra, owner of Zee Group backed by BJP, lost the election. According to sources, the BJP tried to entice the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) to vote in favor of Subhash Chandra, but two of its MLAs sided with the Congress. BJP has sent show cause notice to Dholpur MLA Shobharani Kushwaha for cross-voting Congress candidate Pramod Tiwari and violating party whip.
Sources said the Raje camp was upset after the BJP’s decision to nominate Ghanshyam Tiwari, known for his differences with former CM Vasundhara, to the Upper House. The official faction alleged that Kushwaha cross-voted at the behest of Vasundhara Raje. “This will continue to happen till the central leadership finds out the root of the issue and takes action against those responsible,” said a party leader.