The Bharatiya Janata Party is set to slowly but steadily narrow the gap of 26 seats with the Congress in the Rajya Sabha over the next couple of months, particularly if the party meets its goal of Mission 44+ in the ongoing Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election.
Currently, the Congress has 69 members in the Rajya Sabha and the BJP 43.
All four Rajya Sabha seats from J&K will fall vacant in February.
They are currently shared equally between the Congress and the National Conference, both of which ruled the State in coalition for several years before parting ways ahead of the Assembly election.
Already, the two Haryana vacancies that opened up out of turn will be filled by the BJP as the party’s candidates — Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Birendra Singh — were elected unopposed last week.
While one seat was vacated mid-term because Mr. Singh resigned after shifting from the Congress to the BJP, the other fell vacant after Indian National Lok Dal member Ranbir Singh Prajapati opted out after getting elected to the Haryana Assembly.
Both seats would have otherwise fallen vacant only in 2016.
And the lone vacancy that opened up in Maharashtra last Monday with the death of Congressman Murli Deora could go the BJP way unless the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena “gang up” to contest the seat.
In the case of this vacancy, the new entrant will have practically the entire six-year term as Mr. Deora was elected in April this year.
