Modi Magic: BJP overtakes Congress as largest political party in Rajya Sabha

BJP now has 58 members as against Congress’s 57 This is the first time BJP has become the No 1 party in the Rajya Sabha Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ushered in a golden age for the BJP says a US-based think-tank 

The BJP on Friday, overtook Congress to become the largest political party in the Rajya Sabha, where it now has 58 members against 57 of the main opposition party. BJP MP Sampatiya Uikey, who was elected to the Upper House following a bypoll in Madhya Pradesh took oath on Friday. His election was necessitated by the death of Union Minster, Anil Madhav Dave.

This is the first time that the saffron party has become the number one formation in the RS after the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014. The BJP-led NDA, however, is still short of a decisive majority in the house but the joining of JD(U) to the ruling block has further boosted its numbers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ushered in a golden age for the BJP as the party made a comeback to power in Bihar after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar relegated coalition partner Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to the Opposition last week, notes a top Indian-American think-tank. 

"The upheaval is only the latest signal that the BJP is the new centre of political gravity in a country long controlled by the storied Nehru-Gandhi dynasty of Congress Party," Milan Vaishnav, director and senior fellow of South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in an op-ed. The BJP not only occupies prime position for the country's next general election -- scheduled for 2019 --- but it is also moving at "breakneck speed" to cement its hold over powerful state governments, he wrote. 

"Although the BJP government's gathering strength, signals policy stability and political consolidation, it simultaneously raises concerns about the health of India's democratic checks and balances," Vaishnav said. 

Touting his business-friendly policies, nationalist rhetoric, and an aspirational appeal that struck a chord with a young and increasingly restless India, Modi led his party to a historic electoral rout, he said. 

"Securing the first single-party parliamentary majority in three decades, Modi has ushered in a golden age for the BJP," he wrote in his op-ed.