NDA Candidate Parimal Nathwani Secures Surprise Victory in Jharkhand

In the Rajya Sabha elections held in Jharkhand, NDA-backed candidate Parimal Nathwani secured victory with the help of cross-voting. Elections were held for two Rajya Sabha seats, with Baidyanath Ram of the JMM emerging victorious, while Congress candidate Pranav Jha was defeated.

The 81-member Jharkhand Legislative Assembly has 24 MLAs belonging to the BJP-led NDA alliance. A candidate required 28 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat, meaning the NDA was four votes short of the required number.Despite lacking sufficient strength in the Assembly, cross-voting enabled Parimal Nathwani to secure the necessary 28 votes and win the election. The JMM-Congress alliance has 56 MLAs in the Assembly. JMM candidate Baidyanath Ram won comfortably with 30 votes.

Congress candidate Pranav Jha managed to secure only 20 votes and suffered defeat. Election officials also identified three invalid votes during the polling process, including votes cast by two BJP MLAs and one Congress MLA.