Battle lines drawn for Rajya Sabha vacancies, NDA stares at INDIA challenge in Maharashtra, Haryana

With the Rajya Sabha (RS) secretariat notifying vacancies in 10 seats from seven states, whose members got elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent general elections, the ruling BJP-led NDA and the Opposition INDIA alliance are set for another round of fight, especially in Maharashtra and Haryana.

The BJP’s candidates are however likely to romp home in the vacant seats for the Upper House in five states.

The Election Commission is yet to declare the dates for the Rajya Sabha polls for these 10 seats, of which seven were held by the BJP, two Congress and one by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Both the Congress and the RJD are key constituents of the INDIA bloc.

Among the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MPs who got elected to the Lower House, three are Union ministers — Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Madhya Pradesh), and Piyush Goyal (Maharashtra).

Out of the vacant seats, two are each in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra and one each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura.

The BJP has sufficient numbers in the Legislative Assemblies concerned to retain both the Rajya Sabha seats of Assam, and one seat each in Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In Bihar, both the BJP and the RJD will be able to clinch one seat each, given adequate numbers of both the NDA and the INDIA coalitions in the state Assembly.

However, the BJP is likely to face a stiff challenge in the polls for the vacant seats in Maharashtra and Haryana.

The current strength of the 90-member Haryana Assembly has come down to 87 now. While the BJP has 41 members, the Congress has 29 after its Mullana MLA Varun Chaudhary got elected to the Lok Sabha from Ambala. The Dushyant Chautala-led JJP, with which the BJP broke up just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, has