BJP has 273 seats in Lok Sabha- just one more than the majority mark. However, NDA’s number continues to be much higher than the magic figure and there’s no threat to the government, the party has a great discernment to keep its flock together.
If two nominated members from the Anglo-Indian community are added, the BJP’s tally as on Thursday stood at 275.
It’s worth mentioning that the party had 282 seats in Lok Sabha in May 2014 and it has come down to 273. The party failed to retain its six seats in by-elections while the by-polls of other three seats- Kairana (Uttar Pradesh) and Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya (Maharashtra) – are awaited.
The seats that BJP failed to retain were: Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh), Gurdaspur (Punjab), Ajmer and Alwar (Rajasthan) and Phulpur and Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh).
Five of these six seats were lost by the party in the past six months.
The BJP had got its first jolt in November 2015 when it lost Ratlam in the by-election. It had lost the seat to Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuria. The party had got the second shock in Punjab where the Congress leader Sunil Jakhar defeated its candidate by a huge margin in Gurdaspur. The seat fell vacant after the death of actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna.
Though there are total five seats vacant in the Lok Sabha as on Wednesday, two – Nagaland and Anantnag (Jammu & Kashmir) – of them were with the non-BJP parties.
Kairana and Palghar seats are vacant due to deaths of the BJP members whereas Bhandara-Gondiya seat fell vacant after its MP Nanabhau Patole had quit the party and resigned from the Lok Sabha.
The BJP had fielded its candidates in other by-elections too. But those seats were not with the party. Such seats include Uluberia in West Bengal and Araria in Bihar.
The Trinamool Congress had retained its Uluberia seat by defeating BJP candidate in February while the Araria seat could be retained by the RJD – the result of which was declared on Wednesday.
The government at Centre is, however, comfortably placed with its NDA tally at 330. Its allies include Shiv Sena (18), TDP (16), LJP (6), SAD (4), RLSP (3) and JD (U) and Apna Dal (2 each).