With a landslide victory in Punjab under its belt, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) appears set to make big inroads in Rajya Sabha.
Elections have been announced to five Rajya Sabha seats in Punjab and the AAP might bag all of them, taking its total in the Upper House to eight.
The AAP already has three members - all from Delhi - in Rajya Sabha. It stands to gain in Punjab as two different elections will be held for the five Rajya Sabha seats—one for three seats and another for the remaining two.
Among the retiring members from Punjab are Partap Singh Bajwa and Samsher Singh Dullo (both Congress), Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Naresh Gujral (both Akali Dal) and Shwait Malik (BJP).
Two more members—Balwinder Singh Bhunder (Akali Dal) and Ambika Soni (Congress)—from the state will complete their tenure in July and the AAP may bag both.
With the AAP declaring Bhagwant Mann, who is Lok Sabha member from Sangrur, as its chief ministerial candidate, the party is set to lose representation in the lower house. Mann is the lone AAP member in Lok Sabha.
A total of 75 members, including seven nominated, are completing their tenure in the upper house in 2022, while two seats one each from Karnataka and Bihar are vacant.
Elections for 13 Rajya Sabha seats are set to be held on March 31, while 20 more seats are set to fall vacant in June, followed by 33 in July and two in August.
The BJP is expected to gain seats in Himachal Pradesh and Assam, where Congress members Anand Sharma, Ripun Bora and Ranee Narah are retiring next month. The BJP will also add another seat in its kitty from Tripura, where CPI(M) member Jharna Das Baidya is completing her tenure next month.
However, the BJP is not in a position to return its member to the Upper House from Punjab.