With return of JD(U) in its fold, NDA gains 5 MPs in Rajya Sabha

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to ally with the BJP will increase the ruling dispensation's numbers in the Rajya Sabha to 114 out of 238 members.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to again ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will bump up the ruling dispensation’s numbers in the Rajya Sabha as well. With Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) now a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), five of its Rajya Sabha MPs will sit on the treasury benches, bringing up the total to 114.

BJP national president JP Nadda with Bihar Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Sinha during a press conference at BJP office in Patna Bihar on Sunday. (Santosh Kumar/ HT)

The five members include Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Harivansh. The arithmetic in the Upper House is crucial as the NDA doesn’t have a majority and relies on friendly parties such as Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress Party to push legislation. With the support of the JD(U), the NDA now has 114 seats in the House that currently has 238 members, as seven seats are vacant.

The change of guard in Patna also ensures that the ruling dispensation gets three of its six Rajya Sabha seats in the biennial election in April. A total of 55 seats of the Upper House are going to polls in April. The additional seats will help the BJP offset any possible loss of support from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which has four seats in the Upper House. The six seats from Bihar will face biennial elections in April. In the earlier disposition, when Kumar was in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress, the NDA had only one of these six MPs. The JD(U) and RJD had two MPs each and the other lawmaker belonged to the Congress.

With Kumar switching sides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP would be able to retain all three seats of the NDA (one BJP, two JDU) in the biennial election.

These six MPs whose terms are ending include Manoj Kumar Jha and Ashfaque Karim from the RJD, BJP’s Sushil Modi, Bashistha Narayan Singh and Anil Prasad Hegde of the JD(U) and Congress lawmaker Akhilesh Prasad Singh.

In the biennial poll, each party would need at least 36 MLAs to win a seat. The ruling alliance has 128 seats in Bihar, which ensures they have enough votes to win three seats.

Similarly, the opposition group in Bihar—comprising the RJD, Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India— have 114 seats. They too, provided they retain their strength, can bag three seats.