In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won 282 seats (File)
With the
BJP losing a number of bypolls, the party's tally has come down to 272 but it still has a wafer-thin majority in the 539-member Lok Sabha.
The Lok Sabha has 543 elected members but its four seats are current lying vacant. While three lawmakers from Karnataka resigned, the Anantnag seat in Kashmir is unrepresented after the by-poll was deferred indefinitely in May last year. It brings the majority mark down to 270.
However, the party with
two more nominated members enjoys a total strength of 274 in the lower house of the Parliament. The two nominated members of the Anglo-Indian Community to the Lok Sabha are Actor George Baker, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as a BJP candidate from West Bengal, and Richard Hay, a professor of economics from Kerala.
Counting them, the BJP has three members more than the 271 it needs to have a majority in 541-member house.
The BJP lost a number of by-polls, including in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, after which the party's strength came down in the Lok Sabha after
it won 282 seats in the 2014 general elections.
However, it makes little difference to the government as the BJP-led NDA has around 315 seats.
Bypolls to four Lok Sabha seats were held on May 28. The BJP had won three of them in the general elections but could manage to retain only one, losing one each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
(with PTI inputs)