In a major setback for the Congress, its Jharkhand Rajya Sabha candidate Pranav Jha lost the election despite the ruling INDIA bloc enjoying a comfortable numerical strength in the Assembly. Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani secured a return to the Upper House with the backing of the BJP. The result triggered allegations of cross-voting within the INDIA bloc.
With Nathwani’s victory, the NDA has now secured 20 of the 27 Rajya Sabha seats that went to polls in the current cycle. With this, the NDA’s strength in the Upper House is set to rise to 152, bringing it closer to the two-thirds mark of 163 in the 243-member House.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Baidyanath Ram won the other Rajya Sabha seat from the state. The INDIA bloc marginally improved its tally from five to seven seats in this round of polls.
According to officials, Nathwani secured 28 votes and was declared elected, while Jha got 20 votes. Three votes—two from BJP MLAs and one from a Congress MLA—were declared invalid. The NDA has only 24 MLAs in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, four short of the 28 first-preference votes required to win a Rajya Sabha seat. However, the ruling INDIA bloc, comprising the JMM, Congress and allies, has 56 members in the House.
The result has raised questions over possible cross-voting in the INDIA bloc with state Congress in-charge K Raju alleging that MLAs from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI(M-L) cross-voted, leading to Jha’s defeat. “We received all 16 Congress votes and four surplus votes from the JMM, taking our tally to 20. This result is a consequence of betrayal by the RJD and CPI(M-L),” Raju alleged.
Former Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur described the outcome as “tragic and shameful”. “Nothing could be more tragic than this. What happened today is a shameful incident for democracy. Across the country, whether in Maharashtra, West Bengal or elsewhere, legislators are being purchased. Offers of `15 crore are being made,” he said.
However, CPI(M-L) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya rejected the allegations, saying that both MLAs from his party voted for the Congress candidate. “We can say with full responsibility that our two MLAs voted for the Congress nominee as planned. Senior party leaders verified the votes cast by our legislators,” Bhattacharya said in a post on X.
The Jharkhand setback for the INDIA bloc comes days after the blow the Congress received in Madhya Pradesh, where its candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination was rejected over alleged concealment of information in her election affidavit. As a result, all three BJP candidates from the state were elected unopposed.
Earlier, 24 candidates were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Of these, 19 seats went to the NDA, while the Congress won five. Among those elected unopposed were Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party media department head Pawan Khera and AICC secretary Mansoor Ali Khan from Karnataka. BJP leaders Satish Poonia and Tarun Chugh were also elected unopposed.
In Mizoram, the ruling Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) secured the lone seat, with K Laltluangkima defeating Mizo National Front candidate Zothansangi Hmar by 26 votes to 10. Three MLAs—two from the BJP and one from the Congress—abstained, while one ZPM legislator was unable to vote.
