RANCHI: Congress suffered a major setback on Thursday as NDA-backed independent candidate Parimal Nathwani and JMM’s Baidhyanath Ram won the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand, while the party’s candidate, Pranav Jha, was defeated. The victory marks Nathwani’s third stint as a Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand. He had earlier represented the state in the Upper House from 2008 to 2020 before serving a term from Andhra Pradesh. Nathwani, an industrialist from Gujarat, contested as an independent candidate backed by the NDA. As the results emerged, Congress, which is part of the JMM-led INDIA bloc government in the state, termed the outcome a betrayal by its own alliance partners and accused the BJP of engaging in “horse-trading” by backing a “capitalist” candidate from outside Jharkhand. All 81 MLAs cast their votes during polling held at the Vidhan Sabha premises from 9 am to 4 pm. Ram secured 30 votes, Nathwani 28 and Pranav 20, while three votes were declared invalid. Congress’s Jharkhand affairs in-charge K Raju said, “It is truly disappointing despite having sufficient numbers with us to ensure victory for both our India bloc candidates. It is because an independent candidate has once again resorted to horse-trading under BJP’s patronage. All our 16 MLAs and four from JMM remained intact.” Congress minister Deepika Pandey, reacting to the result, said, “Dhoka hua.”BJP’s Koderma MLA Neera Yadav, on the contrary said, “Jai Shree Ram, ho gaya kaam”. Congress is part of the ruling INDIA bloc government in Jharkhand. The JMM-Congress-RJD-CPI(ML) alliance has 56 MLAs, enough to win both seats. However, the results dashed Congress’s hopes of securing the second seat.
