Jharkhand RS Polls: NDA Moves MLAs To Ranchi Hotel Amid Cross-Voting Buzz

Ranchi: Ahead of Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand, BJP-led NDA on Tuesday started shifting its legislators to a Ranchi-based hotel even as Congress is claiming that  some of them were in touch.    

On Monday, seven NDA legislators did not attend a meeting convened by the alliance in Ranchi.  Industrialist and NDA-backed Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani was also present at the meeting. Besides Nathwani, JMM candidate Baidyanath Ram and Congress candidate Pranav Jha also filed their nominations.

Two Rajya Sabha seats will go to the polls in Jharkhand on June  18. One Rajya Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of JMM co-founder Shibu Soren, while BJP member Deepak Prakash will complete his six-year term on June 21.

While the victory of the JMM candidate in the RS polls is certain, an intense contest is likely between the NDA-backed Independent candidate and the Congress candidate for the second seat.

Sources said that NDA legislators would stay at the hotel in Ranchi until polling day and would be taken directly from there to the assembly for voting. To ensure victory, a candidate must secure a minimum of 28 first-preference votes.

In the Jharkhand Assembly, the INDIA bloc has 56 members, comprising 34 from the JMM, 16 from the Congress, four from the RJD and two from CPI(ML). The NDA has 24 MLAs—21 from the BJP and one each from the LJP (Ram Vilas), AJSU Party and JD(U). Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha has one MLA. 

Talking to the media, Congress MLA Bandhu Tirkey claimed that some BJP legislators were in contact with leaders of the ruling INDIA bloc, though he did not reveal the name of any legislator. A BJP leader rejected the claim, contending that keeping legislators together was as a routine exercise ahead of the election.

Former Jharkhand chief minister and leader of opposition Babulal Marandi said that many legislators were new, so coordination and training were necessary, confirming that they would stay  together at the hotel and would go to the assembly for voting.  

Nathwani is a three-time Rajya Sabha member. While he won Rajya Sabha elections as an Independent candidate from Jharkhand in 2008 and 2014, he won RS polls as YSR Congress candidate from Andhra Pradesh in 2020. He is Director-Corporate Affairs at Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).