National Democratic Alliance-backed independent candidate Parimal Nathwani on Thursday defeated the Congress’ nominee in the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand after cross-voting, The Times of India reported.
The Congress, which is part of the state’s ruling alliance, had fielded Pranav Jha as its candidate.
Congress ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s candidate Baidyanath Ram won the second seat for which the polling was held.
Besides the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the ruling alliance comprises the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. The alliance has 56 MLAs.
In the 81-member Assembly, a candidate needed 28 first-preference votes to win the election.
Ram won 30 votes. Nathwani also secured 30 votes but two of them were declared invalid, The Indian Express reported. This was despite the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies having 24 seats in the House.
The Congress candidate won 20 votes, excluding one declared invalid.
It was unclear who had cross-voted.
This will be Nathwani’s fourth term in the Rajya Sabha and the third from Jharkhand. He had served as a member of the Upper House from the state between 2008 and 2020, when he was re-elected from Andhra Pradesh on a Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party ticket.
Nathwani is the director of corporate affairs at Reliance Industries led by businessman Mukesh Ambani.
After the result was declared, Nathwani on social media thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP leader Amit Shah, the party’s chief Nitin Nabin and allies for their support. He also thanked MLAs who had voted for him.
Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.
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