Litmus test for Citizenship Bill in Rajya Sabha |
After a nearly seven-hour debate, the lower House of Parliament passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill on Tuesday and was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. If the passage of the bill was easy for the ruling alliance, it will see the real picture as the National Democratic Alliance appears to have only a slim majority in the upper House as there still seem to be some uncertainties regarding a few parties` stand on the issue, mainly the Janata Dal-United and the Shiv Sena. As it stands right now, the BJP has 83 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, while its NDA partners combined make the total number to 108. Among non-NDA members which supported the Bill in the Lok Sabha are Biju Janata Dal or BJD, Shiv Sena, YSR Congress Party, and Telugu Desam Party. With an effective strength of 240, 121 votes are needed to pass the bill in the house. Additionally, four of the six Independent MPs and three of the four nominated MPs are likely to support the Bill, which takes the number of those in favour of the bill, to 129. On Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said his party would not support the Bill in the Rajya Sabha until things are clear.
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