Waqf Amendment Bill Tabled In Rajya Sabha By Union Minister Kiren Rijiju As Lok Sabha Clears It After Hours Long Debate

New Delhi: Union Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Thursday tabled the Waqf Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Rijiju appealed to the Congress and other Opposition parties to support the Waqf Bill.

After the introduction of the bill in the Upper House, the Union Minister said, ". As of today, there are 8.72 lakh Waqf properties...In 2006, if the Sachar committee had estimated the earnings from 4.9 lakh Waqf properties at Rs 12,000 crore, then you can imagine the income these properties must be generating now."

Kiren Rijiju's Statement:

How Numbers Stack Up In The Rajya Sabha:

Out Of the 125 NDA MPs, 98 are from the saffron party. The BJP's ally in Bihar Janata Dal-United (JDU) has four MPS. Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has three, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has two and one each member from Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and the RLD. The NDA is also confident of getting the support of six nominated MPS in the Upper House and single parties, including Asom Gana Parishad.

The Opposition's INDIA Bloc has 88 MPs. Out of these, the Congress has 27 MPs, 13 from the Trinamool Congress.

Meanwhile, Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which is not part of the INDIA bloc, has seven members. It will be interesting to see how the BJD MPs will vote in the Upper House.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and it was cleared after a marathon 12-hour-long debate.

Waqf Bill Debate In Lok Sabha:

The Lower House sat beyond midnight to pass the legislation. The bill received the support of 288 members, while 232 MPs voted against it.

Notably, the revised bill was brought by the government after incorporating recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) which examined the legislation which was introduced in August last year.