In the Upper House elections held on Thursday, the BJP won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. With this, the BJP’s tally in the Rajya Sabha touched the 100 mark – the first party to do so since 1988.
12 opposition MLAs voted for BJP candidates – seven from Congress and 5 from AIUDF. Each winning candidate needs at least 43 votes.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said That Congress doesn’t know that many of its MLAs are going to join BJP. “Furthermore, the candidates are not bound to follow the whip issued by the party in the Rajya Sabha elections. Accordingly, we will be able to get both the seats.
The BJP has fielded Pabitra Gogoi Margherita from one seat, while its ally United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) has fielded Rawangwara Narzari from the second seat. Narzari is the chairman of the UPPL, which has seven MLAs in the house.
Ripun Bora, the former president of the Assam Congress, was the joint candidate of the opposition parties for the only seat on which he was contesting.
The ruling NDA has 79 members in the 126-member Assam Assembly – the BJP has 63, the AGP nine and the UPPL seven. The BPF, which has three MLAs, has extended its support to the government in the assembly, but has not yet formally entered into a political alliance.
There are seven Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. Of these, three are with the BJP and one with alliance partner AGP. An independent member holds another seat. Legislators participate in Rajya Sabha elections as the members of the Upper House of Parliament are elected by the legislators in the state legislatures. It is an election through proportional representation.
Congress will not have any Rajya Sabha member from Assam this time. Former PM Manmohan Singh was once a Rajya Sabha MP from the northeastern state.
(with PTI inputs)
read all breaking news , today’s fresh news And IPL 2022 Live Updates Here.