Badyanath Ram of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and NDA-backed independent candidate Parimal Nathwani won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand on Thursday. While Ram won comfortably, Nathwani’s win raised sharp allegations of cross-voting within the ruling alliance in the state.
Badyanath Ram received 30 first preference votes while Nathwani got 28 votes, which is the minimum number of first preference votes a candidate needs to win. The third candidate, Pranav Jha, from the Congress Party, received only 20 votes.
All 81 MLAs of the Jharkhand Assembly cast their votes, but three votes were declared invalid. But officials did not reveal which votes were invalidated.
The JMM candidate was in a comfortable position from the start, as 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 the NDA-backed Nathwani because the NDA did not have the numbers to ensure Nathwani’s victory. Unless there is cross voting.
The NDA’s strength in the Assembly is 24 MLAs, including 21 from the BJP and one each from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) and Janata Dal (United).
In the end, Nthwani was able to close the gap by securing four additional votes from the ruling camp to cross the finish line.
Jharkhand Congress in-charge K Raju criticized India’s bloc allies Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI-Liberation (ML-L), accusing them of treason.
“I was the polling agent for my party and can confirm in writing that all 16 Congress legislators remained intact. We also got four votes from JMM, taking our tally to 20. The RJD and CPI (ML-L) betrayed us. The BJP did not field its own candidate, and instead supported an independent who used financial muscle to win,” Raju told reporters.
The Allies quickly rejected this accusation.
Jharkhand RJD president and legislator Sanjay Prasad Yadav said Raju was oblivious to the party’s ideological consistency.
“We are Lalu Prasad’s followers. We can go to jail, but we will never betray anyone. Our central leadership has sent its most trusted leader, Bhola Yadav, from Patna to act as the party’s agent. We are not Lord Hanuman so that we can tear our chests and prove our loyalty,” Yadav said.
CPI Legislative Party (ML-L) leader Arup Chatterjee also dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and advised the Congress to introspect.
“We voted for the alliance; we had no other option. Our party leadership appointed a senior leader as poll agent to oversee the process. In such situations, larger parties tend to make smaller parties scapegoats. Congress should look inward and find out why it is failing to keep its flock together,” Chatterjee said.
BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Jharkhand Assembly, Babulal Marandi, welcomed the mandate and attributed Nathwani’s victory to his past performance.
“Legislators across party lines voted for Natwane because of his track record. People have witnessed the development work he did during his two previous terms in the Rajya Sabha between 2008 and 2020. The legislators in Jharkhand are mature enough to evaluate who will work best for the growth of the state,” Marandi said.
