The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) Baidyanath Ram and National Democratic Alliance-backed Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani won the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand on Thursday. While Ram cruised to a comfortable victory, Nathwani’s win triggered sharp allegations of cross-voting within the state’s ruling alliance.
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Baidyanath Ram secured 30 first-preference votes while Nathwani received 28, the minimum number of first-preference votes that a candidate needed to win. The third candidate, Pranav Jha of the Congress, received only 20 votes.
All 81 MLAs in the Jharkhand assembly cast their votes, but three votes were declared invalid. Officials, however, did not disclose whose votes were invalidated.
The JMM candidate had been comfortably placed from the beginning, since the party has 34 legislators in the state assembly.
The spotlight was mostly on the second seat, which was locked in a tough fight between Congress’ Jha and NDA-backed Nathwani because the NDA did not have the numbers to ensure Nathwani’s victory. Unless there was cross-voting.
The NDA’s strength in the assembly stands at 24 MLAs, including 21 from the Bharatiya Janata Party and one each from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), and the Janata Dal (United).
In the end, Nathwani managed to bridge the gap by securing four additional votes from the ruling camp to cross the finish line.
Jharkhand Congress in-charge K Raju lashed out at INDIA bloc allies Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI (ML-L) Liberation, accusing them of betrayal.
“I was the polling agent for my party and can confirm in writing that all 16 Congress legislators remained intact. We also received four votes from the JMM, taking our tally to 20. The RJD and the CPI(ML-L) have betrayed us. The BJP didn’t field its own candidate and instead backed an independent who used money power to win,” Raju told reporters.
The accusation was swiftly rejected by the allies.
Jharkhand RJD chief and legislator Sanjay Prasad Yadav said Raju was oblivious to the party’s ideological consistency.
“We are disciples of Lalu Prasad. We can go to jail, but we will never betray anyone. Our central leadership sent its most trusted leader, Bhola Yadav, from Patna to act as the party agent. We are not Lord Hanuman that we can rip open our chests and prove our loyalty,” Yadav said.
CPI (ML-L) legislature party leader Arup Chatterjee also dismissed the allegations as “baseless,” advising the Congress to introspect.
“We voted for the alliance; we had no other choice. Our party leadership appointed a senior leader as the polling agent to oversee the process. In such situations, bigger parties tend to make smaller parties the scapegoats. The Congress should look inward and find out why it failed to keep its flock together,” Chatterjee said.
Senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly, Babulal Marandi, welcomed the mandate, attributing Nathwani’s victory to his past performance.
“Legislators across party lines voted for Nathwani because of his track record. People have seen the development work he carried out during his two previous Rajya Sabha terms between 2008 and 2020. Jharkhand’s lawmakers are mature enough to assess who will work best for the state’s growth,” Marandi said.
