The BJP has got a big relief before the election of the Vice Presidential post as the party has crossed the figure of 100 MPs in the Rajya Sabha for the first time after April 2022. Three nominated members have also joined it. The Election Commission has announced the election of Vice President on 9 September.
Last month, senior advocate Ujjwal Nikam, former Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Shringla and social activist C Sadanandan Master joined BJP this week, causing the number of party members to 102. Let us know that the Rajya Sabha currently has 240 MPs including 12 nominated members and 5 seats are still vacant.
MPs decreased after 2022
After the elections for 13 Rajya Sabha seats in 2022, the BJP became the second party with more than 100 MPs in the upper house of Parliament in India’s history, while the Congress touched the figure in the Rajya Sabha between 1988 and 1990. 3 years ago, the number of BJP MPs increased from 97 to 101.
However, then the number of BJP MPs decreased and by the last week this number had reached 99. The NDA now has 134 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, including 5 out of 12 nominated members and has easily crossed the current majority figure of 121.
Who are 3 new Rajya Sabha MPs of BJP?
The 72 -year -old Ujjwal Nikam came into the limelight for being appointed as Special Public Prosecutor for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the case of the only surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016 and contested the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North Central seat on a BJP ticket last year, but lost to Congress’s Varsha Gaikwad.
Harshvardhan Shringla was the Foreign Secretary from 2020 to April 2022 and was the chief coordinator of the G20 summit in 2023. He has also worked as India’s Ambassador to America and High Commissioner in Bangladesh.
C Sadanandan Master is a social worker and teacher from Kerala. His legs were cut in 1994. He claimed that the attack was carried out by CPM workers, who were angry with his joining BJP. He contested the assembly elections in Kerala on a BJP ticket in 2016, but lost.
Apart from these three, historian Meenakshi Jain, who was a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research, was also nominated for the Rajya Sabha. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2020.
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