Gujarat Election Result: Narrow win to cost BJP two Rajya Sabha seats

BJP on Monday won Gujarat but its winning tally won’t help the party retain all its Rajya Sabha seats from the state when the Upper House goes to biennial polls to elect over 50 members from 14 states in March next year.

Four of the party’s RS members from Gujarat will retire on April 2, 2018. Having bagged 99 assembly seats, the party will be able to retain only two seats (36 MLAs vote for one RS seat) with the remaining two going to Congress.

The four BJP MPs who will retire from the RS after completion of their term in April include Arun Jaitley (Union finance minister), Parshottam Rupala, Mansukh Mandaviya and Shankarbhai Vegad.

At present, nine out of the 11 RS members from the state are from BJP. After next year’s biennial election, its tally will be reduced to seven.

BJP will, however, improve its tally in the RS after the biennial poll with the help of the party’s strength in the UP and Maharashtra assemblies. It will gain seven seats from UP and two from Maharashtra, taking the NDA’s tally from 84 to nearly 100 next year.

The Himachal Pradesh result on Monday will help BJP comfortably retain its seat in the state next year. Union health minister J P Nadda will retire as an RS member from Himachal on April 2.