Majority eludes UPA in the RS even after polls

The UPA still has no majority in the Rajya Sabha despite the fact that it won most of the 55 seats in the just-concluded biennial elections to the House.

With numbers not much on its side, the ruling alliance may have to sing the mantra of consensus on several key issues and legislations including its pet reforms programmes, a quick look at the Rajya Sabha results show.

In the 245-member House, the numbers are more or less the same for the ruling alliance and in fact the Congress tally has come down to 69 from 71 it held before the polls.

A redeeming feature for the UPA was that the DMK, its strong Southern ally, has netted three more seats increasing its personal tally to seven.

Sharad Pawar-led NCP continues to have six members and the Trinamool Congress and the National Conference two each.

The elections saw the BJP, which had 46 members, almost retaining its 10 retiring seats. It scored impressive victories in Karnataka and Rajasthan, but lost a seat in Jharkhand.

The Samajwadi Party became the biggest loser as its strength came down from 10 to five.

The government is not having majority in the Rajya Sabha since long and more so after the UPA-II came into existence after the Lok Sabha polls last year.

Parties like SP, RJD which are outside supporters of the Congress-led coalition have strong views on certain matters and are dead against the Women’s Reservation Bill in its present form and are strong champions of inclusion of caste in census.

In the elections, Congress could field only four candidates from Andhra Pradesh and that too after a tie up with the film-star-turned politician Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam.

In Karnataka, failure to have enough numbers and a pact with JD(S) cost one seat to Congress which could not renominate AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad and had to contend with the victory of industrialist Vijay Mallya, an independent backed by JD(S).

BJP has succeeded in bringing a veteran like Ram Jethmalani from Rajasthan and Congress attempts to queer the pitch by fielding former Union Minister Santosh Bagrodia failed miserably.

The BJP failed to get its act together in Jharkhand where it lost a sitting member Ajay Maroo amid cross voting.

Several Union Ministers including Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh got elected unopposed in the polls.