New Delhi: With the unopposed election of Samatiya Uikely as BJP member in Rajya Sabha after the recent death of Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave in May, made BJP the largest party in the house of Rajya Sabha.
Congress stands with 57 MPs, Samajwadi Party stands with 18MPs, AIADMK stands with 13 MPs, Trinamool Congress with 12 MPs and JD(U) with 10 MPs and other parties have a single MP in the house.
The first time ever BJP MPs stood largest in the Upper house, the house consists of a total 245 seats of which 58 MPs now belong to the BJP party.
The elected Sampatiya is woman tribal leader from Madhya Pradesh.
The next contest is for six seats in the upper house in West Bengal and three seats in Gujarat. While ruling party Trinamool Congress is likely to win five out of six contesting seats of the state since it has a massive majority in the state Assembly, Congress hopefully can win the remaining seat.
While Gujrat has BJP as its ruling party, party president Amit Shah and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani are likely to win the two seats which the party members vacated, and the winner for the third seat is yet to be guessed.
Ahmed Patel from Congress will be contesting for the third seat, while BJP has also put forth its another member Balwanthsinh Rajput, former Congress member name in the nomination for the third seat.
The lower house has a majority of BJP led NDA party whereas in Rajya Sabha, currently, it has 58 MPs. BJP is likely to increase its majority of MPs in the upper house after winning the UP elections in March can now easily nominate another eight MPs in RS.