The Inclusive Indian Development Alliance (INDIA) suffered a setback in Jharkhand on Thursday after NDA-backed independent candidate Parimal Nathwani edged out Congress candidate Pranav Jha to win one of the two Rajya Sabha seats on offer from the state.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate Badyanath Ram won the other seat comfortably amid joint voting by at least four legislators from the ruling JMM-Congress coalition.
This round of Rajya Sabha elections had 27 seats on offer in 10 states. Of these, contests were expected only in Madhya Pradesh, where the disqualification of controversial Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan gave the BJP an uncontested seat, and in Jharkhand.
Of the 27 seats, the National Democratic Alliance won 19 seats, and the India Bloc won five. In the 245-member Rajya Sabha, the NDA now has 152 seats and India 63 seats. With the help of the BJD and YSRCP, which have 5 and 7 seats respectively, the NDA can reach the two-thirds majority mark in the Rajya Sabha of 164 seats.
In Jharkhand, the contest was announced when Nathwani, who was a Rajya Sabha member of the YSR Congress party, decided to contest as an independent backed by the NDA.
In the 81-member Assembly where two Rajya Sabha seats were in the fray, a candidate needs 28 first preference votes to win. The JMM has 34 legislators, the Congress 16, the Rashtriya Janata Dal four, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has two.
Ram was JMM’s first candidate, always on the safe side. But Congress candidate Jha cannot afford to lose any vote.
The NDA – which has 24 legislators, including 21 from the BJP, one each from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), the All Jharkhand Students’ Union and the Janata Dal (United) – needed four more votes for first preference.
The Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) has one MLA.
Assembly officials said Ram received 30 first preference votes. There are only 26 left to go. Of these, at least four people voted for Nthwani, who emerged victorious with 28 preferred votes.
Three other votes were declared invalid.
Nathwani, now a four-time Rajya Sabha member, said in an
Members of the India bloc blamed each other.
K. was accused. Raju, the Jharkhand Congress in-charge, accused the RJD and CPI (ML-L) of betraying the alliance. “I was also the party’s agent for the party. I 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 have betrayed us. The BJP did not field a candidate of its own and supported an independent candidate who used financial muscle to win,” Raju told reporters.
Jharkhand RJD president and legislator Sanjay Prasad Yadav said Raju was not aware of the history of RJD in the state. “We are Lalu Prasad’s followers. We will go to jail but we can never betray anyone. Our high command has sent the most trusted man, Bhola Yadav, from Patna who has become the party’s agent. We are not Lord Hanuman to open our chests and prove our loyalty,” he added.
Arup Chatterjee, CPI (ML-L) leader in the Legislative Council, said the Congress should think why it cannot keep its flock together. He added, “The accusation is baseless. We voted for the coalition. We had no other choice. The party leadership appointed the supreme leader as the party’s agent. In such moments, the major parties join forces and make small parties like us the scapegoat.”
Opposition leader Babulal Marandi said lawmakers voted for Nathwani because of his past record. “The people of the state and legislators of all parties have also witnessed the development works done by Nathwani ji in the state during his previous two terms between 2008 and 2020. Along with the NDA legislators, he received support from legislators of other parties as well because the legislators in Jharkhand are mature enough to evaluate who will work more for the state,” he said.
