The Nation: Rajya Sabha [As Big Names Bid Farewell]

Seventy upcoming vacancies cause re-election worries for MPs--and anxieties of a hung House for the BJP.


Margaret Alva Lost the Lok Sabha polls, now may be out of the Rajya Sabha too.	S R Bommai Karnataka's prodigal son hopes his home state will bail him out.

Though the general elections are over, there will be no respite from poll fever this summer. Between April and August, 70 MPs -- three of them nominated ones -- will be retiring from the Rajya Sabha. At least some big names will suffer. The biggest loser will be the Congress, set to see its strength of 83 MPs reduced to 71. Chief among those due to end a term is Najma Heptullah, one of the four retiring party members from Maharashtra who may well return to Parliament due to her links with both the Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar camps. Yet, her future as the Upper House's deputy chairman is in question.

In recent years, Renuka Chowdhury of the Telugu Desam Party has been a loud presence in the Rajya Sabha. She too retires and can only return if she placates N. Chandrababu Naidu, her party's president. S.R. Bommai is more helpless. His renomination could fall prey to Janata Dal (JD) factionalism in Karnataka. In 1992, Bommai had been sent to the Rajya Sabha from Orissa, where the JD is now extinct and from where he will -- at least legally -- have to move residence to be able to contest from his home state of Karnataka.

Prominent among the 13 outgoing BJP MPs are S.S. Bhandari and T.N. Chaturvedi. There is much speculation on whom the BJP will nominate as a party MP could now, theoretically, make the jump from back-bencher to minister. Also, BJP allies such as the Samata Party, the Lok Shakti and the Loktantrik Congress will make their debut in the Rajya Sabha.


Renuka Chowdhury Ms Artful Talker hopes Naidu will renominate her.	Matang Singh Yesterday's powerful minister is left contemplating oblivion.

On its part, the Congress will lose all its seven seats from Punjab. It will not win a single Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh either. Veterans like Margaret Alva, S.S. Ahluwalia, Matang Singh, Syed Sibte Rizvi, Surinder Singla and Vinod Sharma will face the exit door.

The case will be similar with the JD's Wasim Ahmed, a confidant of V.P. Singh sent to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party (SP) is due to win two seats from Uttar Pradesh. Businessman Sanjay Dalmia and Ram Gopal Yadav -- Mulayam's brother -- are SP members due to quit. In Dalmia's case, it may be permanent.

In essence, the Rajya Sabha will remain a hung House. It will match the sharply divided Lok Sabha in making the legislative process difficult for the incoming BJP government. Though the Congress will decrease in numbers, it will remain the largest party in the Rajya Sabha.This handicap will trouble the BJP government no end.

Traditionally, the Rajya Sabha has been a great arena for filibustering, more so when hung. Unless the BJP regime evolves a consensus in the new-look Rajya Sabha, it could have problems in seeking passage of contentious Bills.