Rift in Grand Alliance after Congress candidate's defeat in Jharkhand Rajya Sabha polls. Congress accuses RJD of cross-voting.
Voting for two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand was held on Thursday. In the results, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Baidyanath Ram won one seat.
Meanwhile, NDA-supported independent candidate Parimal Nathwani was victorious on the second seat. In this election, the Grand Alliance's second candidate and Congress nominee Pranav Jha had to face defeat.
Since this loss, cracks within the Grand Alliance have become clearly visible. Congress has directly blamed its allies for its defeat.
There are a total of 81 MLAs in the Jharkhand Assembly. Here, a candidate needs 28 votes to win one Rajya Sabha seat.
The Grand Alliance had the support of a total of 56 MLAs, making their victory on both seats seem almost certain. On the other hand, the NDA had only 24 MLAs.
But the results surprised everyone. JMM candidate Baidyanath Ram received 30 votes, while Congress candidate Pranav Jha could only get 21 votes. One of these votes was declared invalid, leaving him with only 20 votes.
On the other hand, NDA-supported Parimal Nathwani received 30 votes, which was 6 more than their numerical strength. This is where the game of cross-voting came to light.
This entire political development is being linked to the Bihar Rajya Sabha elections, where the RJD had to face defeat.
In the elections for five seats in Bihar in March, RJD candidate Amarendra Dhari Singh had lost. In that election, three Congress MLAs and one RJD MLA did not participate in the voting.
At that time, Tejashwi Yadav had accused the allies of betrayal.
Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav alleged that his alliance's MLAs had betrayed them and said that if all MLAs had voted, the RJD candidate could have won.
Political analysts believe that what happened in Jharkhand could be a reaction to the incident in Bihar.
The RJD has taken revenge in Jharkhand for the absence of Congress MLAs in Bihar. The allegations by Congress have further fueled this speculation.
This defeat has not only been a setback for Congress but has also raised serious questions about the future of the Grand Alliance. The long-term consequences of this could be seen in Jharkhand's politics in the coming days.
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