Rajya Sabha polls: BJP stuns Congress by winning both seats from reaches 100 mark
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In yet another setback for the Congress party, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that BJP won both seats from Assam which went to the polls on March 31.
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In yet another setback for the Congress party, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that BJP won both seats from Assam which went to the polls on March 31. The two seats of the Upper House from Assam fell vacant due to the retirement of Congress’ Ripun Bora and Ranee Narah. With the NDA having a strength of 82 MLAs, the victory of the BJP’s first-choice candidate was certain as he required only 43 votes to win. However, Congress and its allies were in a pole position to get its candidate elected for the second seat as they had 44 legislators – two votes more than what’s required.
While BJP’s first-choice candidate Pabitra Margherita bagged 46 votes, the Assam Chief Minister revealed that ally UPPL’s working president Rwngwra Narzary received 44 votes. On the other hand, Narzary’s opponent- former Assam Congress president Ripun Bora got only 35 votes whereas one vote was rejected. This implies that a number of legislators cross-voted in favour of the ruling alliance with BJP. While suspended Congress MLA Sashi Kanta Das voted for BJP, the party’s Karimganj South MLA Siddique Ahmed was suspended for casting his vote in the wrong manner.
Speaking to the media, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma remarked, “It’s a historic day for Assam. PM Modi has reduced the areas of AFSPA & in a return gesture, the people of Assam gave us two Rajya Sabha seats. Congress & AIUDF alliance was unholy. We defeated them today and will also defeat them in upcoming Guwahati Municipal Corporation polls”. BJP’s victory has propelled its tally in Rajya Sabha to 100, the first party to reach this mark since 1988. This also marks a rare moment in history where Congress will not have any RS MP from Assam.
AAP and BJP gain big in Rajya Sabha polls
Even before the elections on March 31, AAP’s Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, and Sanjeev Arora were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab as the Arvind Kejriwal-led party has 92 MLAs in the 117-member House. Moreover, it is set to win two other seats from the state falling vacant in July later this year as the term of SAD’s Balwinder Singh Bhunder and senior Congress leader Ambika Soni is coming to an end. Meanwhile, BJP’s Sikander Kumar and S Phangnon Konyak were also elected to the Upper House unopposed from Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland respectively.
