Scindia, Digvijaya enter Rajya Sabha as BJP improves seat tally in Upper House

New Delhi: Voting for 19 vacant seats in the Rajya Sabha were held Friday, with former Congress and now BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress’ Shaktisinh Gohil, BJP’s Narhari Amin, JMM supremo Shibu Soren and Jharkhand BJP chief Deepak Prakash among the prominent newly-elected members of the Upper House.

Fifty-five seats in the Rajya Sabha fell vacant in April, to which 37 candidates were elected unopposed in March itself.

Counting in Gujarat got delayed after the Congress lodged a complaint against the BJP and demanded two votes be countermanded. In Madhya Pradesh, Congress legislator Kunal Chaudhury, who had tested positive, cast his vote wearing a PPE suit.

With this, the BJP, that earlier had 75 members in the Upper House, raised its tally in the Rajya Sabha but the BJP-led NDA still remains short of the majority mark.

In Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress lost power to the BJP after the political
crisis engulfed it, the BJP won two seats - Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki. The
Congress’ Digvijaya Singh was also elected. In Rajasthan, the Congress won two and the BJP seat. The Congress’ K.C. Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi and the BJP’s Rajendra Gehlot made it to the Upper House.

In Gujarat, Congress’ Gohil and BJP’s Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramilaben Bariya and Narhari Amin won. Congress’s Bharat Solanki lost. The ruling YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh bagged all four seats. In In Jharkhand, JMM president Shibu Soren and BJP chief Deepak Prakash made it to the Upper House.

The National People’s Party won the lone seat in Meghalaya, with Dr WR Kharlukhi defeating the Congress’ Kennedy Khyriem. The BJP won the lone seat from Manipur even after a defection in the saffron camp. A day before polling, the Congress claimed nine MLAs supporting the N Biren Singh-led NDA government were supporting it. BJP candidate Leisemba Sanajaoba defeated the Congress’ T Mangi Babu