PM Modi-led NDA has returned to power for a second term with a huge majority.

The BJP-led National Democratic alliance (NDA) is likely to dominate the Rajya Sabha by 2021, which will give the government a free hand to clear legislation.

The ruling BJP won 303 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha in the national election, and along with its allies, has 353.

The ruling coalition currently has 99 members in the 250-member Rajya Sabha and needs 124 for a majority. The opposition has 65.

Ten seats will be vacant this year and 72 in the next.

As many as 10 of the Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in 2020 are in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP's huge majority in the state means it can win nine of those.

The BJP and its allies have won 64 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 seats; the opposition Samajwadi Party-BSP coalition has 15 and the Congress has been reduced to one.

Assembly elections are due in BJP-ruled states like Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year and if the party manages to retain all, it will snag more seats in the Rajya Sabha polls due next year. BJP leaders are confident that the party will extend its stupendous national election performance to the state polls.

The BJP's defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has stalled its march to Rajya Sabha majority.

If the seats of BJP allies like the Janata Dal United in Bihar, the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra are added, the ruling alliance may cross the majority mark in 2021.

Also, parties that call themselves "equidistant" to the NDA and the opposition, like Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the YSR Congress Party have supported the government on several crucial bills.

A majority in the Rajya Sabha will be a huge win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government as tricky bills like "triple talaq" and the Citizenship Act were blocked by the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

For the Congress, a big loss from the Rajya Sabha this year will be former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam.

The party doesn't have enough numbers in the Assam assembly or even those in Tamil Nadu, Bihar or Odisha to win a single Rajya Sabha seat this year.