The strength of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament has increased while that of the Congress has decreased. For the first time in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has touched the 100 mark. The BJP has become the first party since 1990 to achieve this feat. The BJP achieved the feat of having 100 members in the Rajya Sabha after winning one seat each in Assam, Tripura and Nagaland in the elections held on Thursday.
The BJP lost one seat in Punjab in the recently held biennial elections to 13 Rajya Sabha seats in six states. However, the party won one seat each from three northeastern states and Himachal Pradesh, where all five sitting members were from opposition parties. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party won all five seats.
The new tally has not yet been released on the Rajya Sabha website. However, if the seats won by the BJP during the recent elections are added up, the number of members in the Upper House will reach 100. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted, “BJP and its allies won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. The other two seats in the North East, Tripura and Nagaland, have also been won by the BJP. So far the result here is 4/4. The BJP now has 100 members in the Rajya Sabha. No party reached here after 1988.”
The party’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has steadily increased since the BJP’s thumping victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. In 2014, the number of BJP in the Rajya Sabha was 55 and since then this number has been increasing continuously as the party has won power in many states since then.
The strength of the Congress has decreased in the Rajya Sabha, which has 29 members. At the same time, TMC has 13 members, DMK 10, BJD 9, Aam Aadmi Party 8, TRS 6, YSRCP 6, AIADMK 5, RJD 5 and SP 5.
The last time this happened was in 1990 when a party had 100 or more members in the Upper House, then the then ruling Congress had 108 members. In the biennial elections of 1990, the party’s strength in the Rajya Sabha was reduced to 99 and since then this number has been decreasing.