Administrator
18 June 2026
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate Baidyanath Ram and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) backed Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani won the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand.
The RS polls for two seats were held and all 81 MLAs if the Jharkhand Assembly cast their voted on Thursday ( June 18,2026).
Nathwani received 30 votes in the Rajya Sabha election. However, two of those votes were declared invalid, taking his effective tally to 28 votes, exactly the number required to secure victory.
In all, three contestants- Baidyanath Ram (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha - JMM),Pranav Jha (Indian National Congress) and
Parimal Nathwani (Independent
candidate, heavily backed by the BJP-led NDA) -were in the fray.
To win, the candidate needed 28 first preference votes. Although with its strength of 34 MLAs in 81 member house, the victory of the JMM’s Baidyanath Ram looked certain,mathematics of number did not favour NDA’s Nathwani.
So because Nathwani’s visible support base loitered around 24 MLAs of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). This included 21 from the BJP, along with one each from the LJP (Ram Vilas), AJSU Party, and JD(U).In other words, he lacked as many as 4 first preference votes.
However, two set of invisible factors resulted in the victory of Nathwani. One, during his past three terms as Rajya Sabha MP, he had done a number of fantastic community works for people,including Muslim minority community. This had helped him gain support of politicians, cutting across party lines.
Two,the Congress candidate Pranav Jha who has been political adviser to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, was dubbed by some of his own partymen as an ‘outsider’, not a local party leader.He is originally from Anadipur village in Kahalgaon, Bihar.
Three, exchange of lollies for cross -votes from I.N.D.I.A block members especially the RJD and Congress to NDA backed Nathwani was learnt to be a major reason for the defeat of Congress’s Jha.
JharkhandStateNews.com is closely watching and viewing the mode of votes polled by the two winners - JMM’s Baidyanath Ram and NDA’s Parimal Nathwani to report in public interest as soon as possible.
