NDA likely to lose one Rajya Sabha seat as opposition gains ground

The Election Commission of India announced Rajya Sabha polls for 26 seats on June 18. The NDA is projected to lose one seat, while the Congress-led opposition may gain three seats across multiple states following biennial elections and bypolls

New Delhi: The NDA is likely to lose one Rajya Sabha seat in the biennial elections for 26 seats in 12 states across the country, while the Congress-led opposition is set to gain three. The Election Commission on Friday announced elections for 26 Rajya Sabha seats on June 18 following the retirements of incumbents, including former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Digvijaya Singh, and two Union ministers, Ravneet Singh and George Kurian.

In a statement, the EC said the elections for the Rajya Sabha seats will be held in 10 states where 24 incumbents are retiring on different dates beginning June 21 to July 19. Of the total 26 seats where elections are being held, the NDA currently has 18 and the Congress four while one seat is with the JMM and three are with the YSRCP.

---

The NDA is likely to get 17 seats in these elections, while the Congress will get five, the JMM two and the TVK one. The NDA currently has 149 MPs in the upper house while the opposition has 78 and non-aligned regional parties have 17 MPs in the 244-member house.

The Rajya Sabha elections will be held in four seats each in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, three seats each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two seats in Jharkhand and one seat each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. Besides, one seat each in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu will also go to the polls on June 18.

The last date for filing of nominations is June 8, according to the EC. In a separate notification, the EC also announced by-elections to fill the vacancies created by the NCP’s Sunetra Pawar in Maharashtra and the AIADMK’s C Ve Shanmugam in Tamil Nadu following their resignations after they were elected to the state assemblies.

While the NDA is set to bag Pawar’s seat, going by its strength in the state assembly, the TVK is likely to get the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu going for a bypoll. The tenure of Pawar’s seat will be till July 4, 2028 while that for the Tamil Nadu seat will be till June 29, 2028.

In Andhra Pradesh, the TDP will win all the four states for the Council of States and the BJP will bag all four seats in Gujarat. In Jharkhand, the JMM-Congress alliance is likely to win both the seats, but the BJP which has 21 seats of its own may try to bag one seat with the help of cross-voting by four opposition members.

In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Congress will get one seat each while the BJP will win two seats in each of the states, going by their current numbers. In Karnataka, the Congress will win three seats and the BJP will get only one seat.

Among those who are retiring from the Rajya Sabha are Gowda, Congress president Kharge (both from Karnataka), Union ministers Ravneet Singh (Rajasthan) and George Kurian (Madhya Pradesh), former chief minister Digvijay Singh, and Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil. Besides Ravneet Singh, the members whose tenure is ending in Rajasthan are Neeraj Dangi of the Congress and Rajendra Gehlot of the BJP.

Rajasthan has a total of 10 Rajya Sabha seats. The BJP and the Congress currently have five members each. Given the present strength of parties in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, the BJP is expected to win two of the three seats, while the Congress is likely to secure one. The BJP has 118 MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress has 67 members. The BSP has two MLAs, the Bharat Adivasi Party four, the Rashtriya Lok Dal one, and Independents eight.