Assam Rajya Sabha Elections: The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Assam in the election to the Upper House held on Thursday. With this, the BJP’s count in the Rajya Sabha reached the 100 mark – the first party to do so since 1988.
Twelve opposition MLAs voted for the BJP candidates, of which 7 are from Congress and 5 from AIUDF. Each candidate needs at least 43 votes to win.
The BJP fielded Pabitra Gogoi Margherita from one of the seats, while its ally UPPL (United People’s Party Liberal) fielded Rwngwra Narzary from the other. Narzary is the president of UPPL, which has seven MLAs.
The ruling NDA has 79 members in the 126-member Assam assembly – 63 from the BJP party, 9 from AGP, and seven from the UPPL. The BPF, which has three MLAs, has lent its support to the government in the assembly, but it has yet to enter into a formal political alliance.
There are seven Rajya Sabha seats from Assam – 3 of them are held by the BJP, one by its alliance partner AGP, and another one by the independent member. This time, Congress won’t have any Rajya Sabha members from Assam state.