The BJP won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Assam in the election to the Upper House held on Thursday. With this, the BJP’s tally in the Rajya Sabha touched the 100 mark – the first party to do so since 1988.
Twelve opposition MLAs voted for the BJP candidates – 7 from Congress and 5 from AIUDF. Each winning candidate needs at least 43 votes.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had recently said that Congress does not know that many of its MLAs are going to join the BJP. “Also, candidates are not bound to follow the whip issued by the party in Rajya Sabha polls. By this calculation, we will manage to get both the seats,” he had said.
The BJP fielded Pabitra Gogoi Margherita from one of the seats, while its ally United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) put up Rwngwra Narzary from the other. Narzary is the president of UPPL, which has seven MLAs in the House.
Former Assam Congress president Ripun Bora was the Opposition parties’ joint candidate for the lone seat that they were contesting.
The ruling NDA has 79 members in the 126-member Assam assembly – 63 from BJP, nine from AGP and seven from the UPPL. The BPF, which has three MLAs, has lent its support to the government in the assembly but is yet to enter into a political alliance formally.
There are seven Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. Three of them are held by the BJP and one by its alliance partner AGP. An independent member holds another seat. The MLAs participate in the Rajya Sabha election as members of the Upper House of Parliament are elected by legislators in state assemblies. It is an election through proportional representation.
The Congress this time won’t have any Rajya Sabha member from Assam. Former PM Manmohan Singh was once a Rajya Sabha MP from the northeastern state.
(With PTI inputs)
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