Even after TDP-led NDA swept in Andhra Pradesh polls and BJP itself swept in Odisha polls, defeating ruling YSRCP and BJP, respectively, these two parties still matter for BJP in the Rajya Sabha. Though BJD failed to get a single seat in Lok Sabha and YSRCP was confined to 4 seats, both of them are having considerable number of seats in the Rajya Sabha.
With 11 Rajya Sabha members, YSRCP has emerged as the fourth largest party in the house and BJD has 9 seats. For the last 10 years these two parties have been practically standing by BJP in all legislative matters, though both of them are not part of NDA and claiming to be extending only `issue-based support’.
Presently, there are 117 NDA MPs, 80 INDIA bloc MPs, and 33 others in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. There are 10 vacancies for elected members and five for nominated members. Of the 10 elected-member vacancies, the election date for which has yet to be announced, the BJP held seven, the Congress two, and the RJD one.
The BJP at present has the strength to win at least six of these seats. In such a scenario, the NDA will not require support from others to pass legislation but support from the YSRCP and BJD will put it in a comfortable position. So, they cannot ignore them politically.
After the polls, BJD did not reveal its political strategy, particularly its stand in Rajya Sabha and relations with the BJP, which had breaked 24-year long Naveenn Patnaik’s regime.
But, the YSRCP declared that it will extend “issue-based” support to the BJP-led NDA government. Last week, at a press conference in Delhi,YCP leader V Vijayasai Reddy advised the Narendra Modi government to take stock of “poll-related violence” in Andhra Pradesh and said, “The NDA will need our numbers to pass bills in the Rajya Sabha.”
Accusing the TDP, the second-biggest NDA party after the BJP, of excesses during elections, in a threatening note, he said “they (the BJP) will have to take note of our complaint because we have 15 MPs in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha put together. That is just one MP short of the TDP’s tally.”
The YSRCP has clarified that it is not willing to unconditionally support either the NDA or the INDIA bloc. “We will support those matters that are in the interest of the country,” Reddy said, adding that the YSRCP’s decisions would be “based on constitutional values”.
