The terms of 60 Rajya Sabha MPs, including BJP president JP Nadda and nine sitting Union Ministers, will come to an end by April this year. In all, 69 MPs will be retiring this year from the Upper House, including four nominated MPs whose terms end in July. Among these, the bulk of MPs whose terms will end around the Lok Sabha elections are from the ruling BJP.
BJP president JP Nadda has been a member of the Upper House since 2012 from the state of Himachal Pradesh. This seat, however, in its next term will go to the Congress party after its win in the state Assembly polls last year.
The Union ministers in the Narendra Modi cabinet whose Rajya Sabha terms end this year are – Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Purushotham Rupala, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Narayan Rane. Ministers of State set to retire from their current term include Rajeev Chandrashekar, V Muraleedharan and Dr L Murugan. Mandaviya, Rupala, Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav are two-time MPs in the Raja Sabha.
Five MPs, including two from Jharkhand and three from Kerala, will see their terms end in May and June, respectively. Elections to all these Rajya Sabha seats will take place for a full period of six years.
For the passage of any crucial bill, the numbers in the Rajya Sabha, which is often called the ‘House of Elders’, become extremely critical for any political party. So far, the BJP, which has been in power since 2014, has been able to get its way I the Upper House with the support from parties perceived to be fence-sitters. Whether it is the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) or the YSR Congress, regional parties have bailed out the BJP in critical situations, including during the passage of legislations abrogating of Article 370, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Compared to other parties, only on rare occasions has the saffron party given Rajya Sabha seats to its leaders more than twice. Some of the exceptions have been Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad. However, Prasad, who was in the Rajya Sabha from 2000 till 2019, won the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from Patna. It will be interesting to note if the party decides to make any more exceptions for leaders this time around, specifically when it comes to Union Ministers.
MINISTERS RETIRING FROM RAJYA SABHA THIS YEAR
Popularly known as the ‘Ujjwala Man’, Dharmendra Pradhan has held multiple portfolios in the Modi government, including as the longest-serving Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It’s during his tenure in the ministry that the central government launched the popular Ujjwala scheme to empower women by providing them gas connections and cylinder subsidy.
An ABVP activist, Pradhan has held multiple roles within the BJP organisation. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Deoghar in Jharkhand. He has also been elected to the Rajya Sabha for two terms from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2012. Pradhan, an Odia leader, has already announced that he will be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from his home state Odisha. He is likely to get a ticket from Sambalpur.
One of the strongest organisation resources within the BJP, Bhupender Yadav, has also been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2012. He was elected to the Upper House for both terms from the western state of Rajasthan. Apart from holding multiple portfolios within the BJP organisation, including the party general secretary post, Bhupender Yadav joined the Narendra Modi cabinet in July 2021. He is currently the minister for Labour and Environment.
Three-time MLA and Union minister from Gujarat, Purushotham Rupala, is a two-term Rajya Sabha MP who served as the Minister of State in the Modi government. In July 2021, he was elevated to the rank of a cabinet minister.
Mansukh Mandaviya, another cabinet minister hailing from Gujarat, was made the minister for Health and Family Welfare during the expansion of the Modi cabinet in July 2021. Before this, Mandaviya served as a Minister of State in the Modi government for Shipping and Pharma. Mandaviya was brought to Delhi from Gujarat as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2012 and is currently serving his second term in the Upper House.
Ashwini Vaishnaw was brought to the Rajya Sabha in 2019 when he won the election unopposed from Odisha with the support of the BJD. In July 2021, he was made a cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government.
Another Union minister whose Rajya Sabha term is to come to an end in April is former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane. He was elected to the Upper House from his home state Maharashtra in 2018. The former chief minister is currently the cabinet minister in the Modi government for MSMEs.
A technocrat and media wizard, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has been serving as a Minister of State in the Narendra Modi government since July 2021. Apart from portfolios like Information & Technology and Skill Development, Chandrasekhar was recently made MoS for Jal Shakti after Pralhad Patel was made a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government. Chandrasekhar has been elected to the Rajya Sabha since 2006. From 2006 till 2018, he was in the Rajya Sabha as an Independent MP from Karnataka. However, in 2018, he was elected to the Upper House from the BJP.
Former Kerala BJP president V Muraleedharan is currently serving his first Rajya Sabha term from Maharashtra. Since 2019, he has been the MoS for Parliamentary Affairs and External Affairs in the Modi government.
Minister for State for Fisheries and Information & Broadcasting and former BJP president in Tamil Nadu, Dr L Murugan was brought to the Upper House in July 2021 after he took oath as Union Minister. He was, however, given the term that remained after former Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot was made Karnataka Governor.
OTHER BIG NAMES RETIRING FROM RS THIS YEAR
Among the other leaders retiring in this batch are former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, RJD leader Manoj Jha, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi from the Congress and Amar Patnaik of the BJD.
The four nominated MPs whose term is coming to an end are Mahesh Jethmalani, Rakesh Sinha, Sonal Mansingh and Ram Shakal.
CURRENT NUMBERS IN THE RAJYA SABHA
As of today, the BJP has 94 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, Congress has 30, TMC has 13, DMK has 10, AAP has 10, and the YSRCP and BJD have 9 each. While the K Chandrashekar Rao’s BRS has seven MPs, the RJD has six Rajya Sabha MPs, while the JDU and CPM have five MPs each.
Despite 94 MPs, the BJP does not have majority in the Upper House. The effective strength of the Rajya Sabha currently is 239 MPs since four seats from J&K and two of the 12 nominated seats are vacant.
AFTER 2024 POLLS…
Here’s a look at the numbers game in the Rajya Sabha after April 2024.
- The Congress will gain one seat in Himachal Pradesh.
- The BJP will be able to retain all its seven seats from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
- The Congress party will retain one seat, each from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
- In addition, seats of the BRS will be with the Congress due to the latter’s election win in Telangana.
- Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, meanwhile, will retain four seats from the state, whereas the BJP will get one seat.
- AAP will see three of its Rajya Sabha MPs retire in January itself.
While the state of Madhya Pradesh accounts for 11 Rajya Sabha seats, Rajasthan has 10, Telangana has seven and Chhattisgarh has five. The BJP’s election wins in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh will reflect in the Upper House only after the biennial polls in 2026 and 2028.
A total of eight Rajya Sabha MPs will retire in 2025 and 73 more will retire in 2026.
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