The Congress lost one more seat in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, with the resignation of K.C. Ramamurthy, who represented Karnataka. According to sources, he is headed to the BJP.
Mr. Ramamurthy joined the Congress after retiring as the IG, Bangalore Police. He runs several education institutes in the State and was considered close to Congress leader D.K. Shiva Kumar, who is in judicial custody after his arrest in a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate..
Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has accepted the resignation of Mr. Ramamurthy, whose term was upto June 2022.
With this, the Congress's numbers have come down to 45 in the Upper House. In June next, the terms of Congress members from Karnataka Rajeev Gowda and BK Hariprasad are ending. With just 80 seats, the Congress can only retain one of these two seats. It needs the JD(S)'s support for the second seat.
In the last few months, the Opposition has lost at least seven MPs to the BJP in the House - four from the TDP, two from the Samajwadi Party and one from the Congress (the resignation of it's Chief Whip Bhubaneswar Kalita).
The BJP now has 83 members in the Rajya Sabha and, along with its allies, is in a comfortable majority to ensure that the House is no longer a roadblock for any of the government’s legislations.
