Lotus blossoms in #Rajyasabhaelections: BJP becomes largest party in Upper House by winning 29 out of 59 seats

New Delhi, March 24: In a battle for the 59 seats of Rajya Sabha, Bharatiya Janata Party has concreted its position as the largest party in the Upper House. It has now widened the gap between it and the opposition Congress.

For the 59 Rajya Sabha seats to be filled, 33 candidates from 10 states were declared elected unopposed on March 15 with the BJP accounting for 16 of them. It won 12 of the remaining 26 seats at stake in the polls held in seven states on Friday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated the winners. He wished them a fruitful parliamentary career. In a tweet, Modi hoped that the newly elected MPs would effectively voice the aspirations of the states they represent.

The state of Uttar Pradesh showed its magic when Rajya Sabha election results declared Friday showed that the BJP won nine of the 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and one each in Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh.

 

While 33 Rajya Sabha seats witnessed no election, 26 went to polls on Friday. Of the 33 elected unopposed, 16 were from the BJP, three from its allies and five from the Congress, among others.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the BJP’s candidate from Karnataka for Rajya Sabha, polled the highest votes, with 50 legislators favouring his candidature. The BJP maintained status quo in the one seat that went to polls in Chhattisgarh. The party’s national general secretary, Saroj Pandey, defeated the Congress’s Lekhram Sahu.