Though NDA can still get key legislations passed in the House with the support of seven non-aligned nominated members, two Independents and friendly parties such as AIADMK and YSRCP during the coming budget session, filling the vacancies under nominated category at the earliest will be crucial to reduce the alliance’s dependence on others.
Rakesh Sinha, Ram Shakal, Sonal Mansingh and Mahesh Jethmalani are the four nominated members who retired on Saturday. They had formally aligned themselves with BJP after being nominated to Rajya Sabha. Another such member in the nominated category who is part of BJP is Gulam Ali. He will retire in Sep 2028.
The President nominates 12 members to the RS on the recommendation of the govt. In the existing House, seven of them kept themselves non-aligned (not part of BJP) but such members invariably take the side of the governing party in passing any legislation or resolution.
Currently, the upper House has 19 vacancies, including four each from J&K and nominated category, and 11 from eight different states (two each from Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and one each from Haryana, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura).
Ten out of these 11 seats got vacant last month due to election of members to Lok Sabha while one was due to the resignation of Bharat Rashtra Samithi member K Keshava Rao. Rao later joined Congress.
Election to these 11 seats in the coming months will possibly give eight seats to NDA and three to the INDIA bloc, including one from Telangana to Congress, bringing the party’s tally to 27 — two more than what it needs to retain its leader of opposition post in Rajya Sabha.
