by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Special report
BJP desperate to muster majority in Rajya Sabha
Opposition gets a taste of new kind of “Defections”
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, July 16
The Opposition parties are being dealt a body blow by the ruling BJP in Rajya Sabha which is way behind the majority mark in a house of 245 members. The BJP has reached the figure of 78 and will have to wait until 2022 to get a majority on its own. But BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah is in no mood to wait for so long to get the crucial bills passed. It invented a new method to muster a majority in no time never heard of in parliamentary history so far.
While the defection of 4 of the six TDP MPs to the BJP took place last week, one MP of the Samajwadi Party, Neeraj Shekhar, resigned his seat. Shekhar joined the BJP after his resignation was accepted by the Rajya Sabha chairman yesterday itself. Now the BJP will bring him back to the Rajya Sabha on its ticket from UP where it has 325 MLAs in a house of 403. The Election Commission will issue the notification of byelection anytime next week. It now transpires that two more members of parliament belonging to the SP and BSP will quit in batches so that separate byelection is held for their seats. Since these MPs are due to retire in November 2020, the BJP has conveyed to them that it will re-nominate them and also consider giving them tickets in future for the Assembly polls due in 2022. Similarly, efforts are on to persuade some of the Opposition MPs in UP, Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra and in other states to quit their parties and join the BJP. They will be renominated after joining the BJP making the task easier for the party to get the legislations passed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement today that the parliament's Monsoon session could be extended is an indication that huge agenda is waiting to be cleared and political management is at works. The BJP wants to cross the 100 seats mark this year itself so that there is no difficulty in getting the legislations passed opposed by the Congress.
Of course, the BJP has obtained a working majority in the Upper House as its allies & supporters account for 24-members including three nominated and four Independents. The 13 member AIADMK is also part of extended NDA family taking the tally to 115 in a house of 240 as it has five vacancies. The 7-member Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is also supporting the BJP in Rajya Dsabha. The BJP is also banking on the outside support of YSR Congress (2) in crucial times. Thus it has 124 MPs on its side. Once the JD (S)-Congress government falls in Karnataka, the lone JD(S) MP will switch side in Rajya Sabha too.
But the BJP wants to reach the comfortable mark on its own and won't mind implementing new techniques.
Ends
