Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Tarun Chugh were among the 24 leaders who were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, as officials conducted the scrutiny of nominations for elections to the Upper House.
Elections to 27 Rajya Sabha seats were due. Of these, results for 24 were declared on Thursday, with returning officers handing over the winning certificates to the candidates who were elected unopposed.
Out of the 24 seats, 19 were won by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the Congress bagged the rest of the five seats.
NDA's tally rises by 3, Congress by 1
Out of the 19 seats that the NDA has won this time, the alliance already had 16 seats in its tally. So, its tally has increased by three seats in the Upper House.
Of the five seats the Congress has won, the grand old party was already on four seats. Thus, its tally has increased by just one seat.
Meanwhile, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party has lost three of its Rajya Sabha seats in these elections. Similarly, ex-Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has also lost its seat to the BJP after the saffron party's Debashish Samantaray was elected unopposed.
Samantaray, who joined the BJP on May 26 after he quit the BJD and resigned as its MP from Rajya Sabha, was the only candidate in the fray for the by-election.
The party-wise breakup of Rajya Sabha seats
In Andhra Pradesh, the NDA won all four seats. The NDA also swept the four seats of Gujarat. However, the Congress bagged three seats in Karnataka, while the BJP won just one seat.
The BJP won all three seats in Madhya Pradesh, and two out of the three in Rajasthan. The saffron party also bagged the sole seat of Arunachal Pradesh and also that of Manipur. In Meghalaya, NDA constituent NPP won the single Rajya Sabha seat.
NDA also won the single seat in Maharashtra and Odisha, while the Congress won the sole seat in Tamil Nadu.
| States | NDA | INDIA bloc | Elected candidates |
| Andhra Pradesh | 4 | 0 | Bashyam Ramakrishna (TDP), Chintakayala Vijay (TDP), Sana Satish Babu (TDP) and Lingamaneni Ramesh (Jana Sena) |
| Gujarat | 4 | 0 | Rajubhai Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukeshbhai Rathwa and Jitendra Kanjariya (all BJP) |
| Karnataka | 1 | 3 | Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mansoor Ali Khan (Congress), Pawan Khera (Congress), and M Nagaraja (BJP) |
| Madhya Pradesh | 3 | 0 | Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agarwal and Mahesh Kewat (all BJP) |
| Rajasthan | 2 | 1 | Satish Poonia (BJP), Alka Gurjar (BJP), and Neeraj Dangi (Congress) |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | 0 | Tai Tagak (BJP) |
| Meghalaya | 1 | 0 | James K Sangma (NPP) |
| Manipur | 1 | 0 | Adhikarimayum Sharda Devi (BJP) |
| Tamil Nadu | 0 | 1 | Praveen Chakravarthy (Congress) |
| Maharashtra | 1 | 0 | Rajendra Jain (NCP) |
| Odisha | 1 | 0 | Debashish Samantaray (BJP) |
Focus shifts to Jharkhand, Mizoram
Now, the focus has shifted to Jharkhand, were elections will be held for two Rajya Sabha seats. For these two seats, three candidates are in the fray: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Baidyanath Ram, Congress nominee Pranav Jha and Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani.
The INDIA bloc has 56 MLAs in Jharkhand, and each candidate needs 28 first preference votes to win. The NDA, on the other hand, has 24 MLAs. The Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) also has one MLA. Nathwani, a three-time Rajya Sabha member, needs three cross-votes to win.
Meanwhile, polling will also be held for one seat in Mizoram. Here, Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) spokesperson K Laltluangkima and Mizo National Front (MNF) leader Zothansangi Hmar are in the fray.
In the 40-member Mizoram Assembly, the ZPM and MNF have 27 and 10 MLAs, respectively. Meanwhile, the BJP and the Congress have two and one seat, respectively.
The polling for Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand and Mizoram will be held on June 18.
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