New Delhi: The BJP led NDA gained more seats in the Rajya Sabha, with the result of the latest round of biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, which declared on Friday. BJP is now having 86 seats in the Rajya Sabha and the opposition party Congress strength is reduced to 41.

Now the NDA’s strength in the Rajya Sabha reached to 100, out of the 245 members of Rajya Sabha. NDA will get support from friendly parties YSRCP (6), AIADMK (9) and BJD (9) and several allied nominated members. The Election Commission had announced biennial polls to 61 seats, including 55 in March, but the process was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With 42 members elected unopposed earlier, the BJP won eight, Congress and the YSR Congress won four each and others won  three of the 19 seats that went to polls on Friday.

In total, the BJP won 17, Congress nine, Nitish Kumar’s JDU got three, BJD and the TMC four each, AIADMK and DMK three each, NCP, RJD and the TRS two each, and others got the remaining seats. It prompted a host of defections from the Opposition, including Rajya Sabha members of the Congress, TDP and the Samajwadi Party, to the BJP, and many non-NDA regional parties chose to back the government in Parliament on crucial issues.

Out of the 61 new members, 43 are first-timers, which include BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge. Both have been members of Lok Sabha, but lost from their constituencies in the 2019 general elections. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai have also been elected to the Rajya Sabha. However, setbacks faced by the BJP in recent state selections (since 2018) has also meant that its goal of gaining a full majority on its own in the Rajya Sabha remains far from being achieved.