The keenly watched elections on Monday for 11 vacant Rajya Sabha seats – five in Bihar, four in Odisha and two in Haryana – dealt a setback to the Opposition, which failed to keep its flock together in two states.
Cross-voting and abstentions helped the BJP secure one additional seat each from Bihar and Odisha despite being short of numbers. The Opposition later accused the BJP of indulging in “horse trading”.
In Haryana, the counting of votes was put on hold after both the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress lodged complaints alleging violation of vote secrecy.
The results in Bihar were particularly embarrassing for the Mahagathbandhan. Six candidates were in the fray for five seats: five from the NDA and one from the Mahagathbandhan. The NDA fielded Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, JD(U) MP and Union Minister Ram Nath Thakur, RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha and BJP’s Shivesh Kumar.
The arithmetic was straightforward: a candidate required the support of at least 41 MLAs to win a Rajya Sabha seat.
The NDA has 202 MLAs in the 243-member Assembly, leaving it three votes short of securing a fifth seat. The Mahagathbandhan has 35 MLAs – RJD (25), Congress (6), Left parties (3) and one MLA from the Indian Inclusive Party – meaning its candidate, Amarendra Dhari Singh, was short of six votes.
However, the Opposition candidate was expected to win after the AIMIM, with five MLAs, and the lone BSP MLA extended support, taking the tally to 41. In an anti-climax, however, four Opposition MLAs – three from the Congress and one from the RJD – did not turn up to vote.
According to sources, this resulted in the Opposition nominee securing only 37 votes, while the NDA’s fifth candidate, Shivesh Kumar, won with 38 votes. The other four NDA nominees secured 41 votes each. All 202 NDA MLAs cast their votes.
From a broader political perspective, the elections are significant as Nitish Kumar’s entry into the Rajya Sabha signals the end of the tenure of Bihar’s longest-serving Chief Minister. The polls also saw the national presidents of three parties – Nitish (JDU), Nabin (BJP) and Kushwaha (RLM) – entering the Upper House.
The three Congress MLAs who abstained were Forbesganj MLA Manoj Vishwas, Valmiki Nagar MLA Surendra Kushwaha and Manihari MLA Manohar Prasad. The RJD MLA who did not turn up was Dhaka MLA Faisal Rahman. According to party sources, they remained out of reach of party managers throughout the day and had their mobile phones switched off.
While the Congress had been apprehensive about whether all its six MLAs would vote for the Opposition candidate, the RJD was taken by surprise by Rahman’s absence. Soon after the results were announced, Mahagathbandhan leaders accused the ruling NDA of “influencing and threatening” four Opposition MLAs.
The elections in Odisha were also marked by cross-voting by Opposition MLAs.
Five candidates contested the four vacant seats. The BJP fielded its state unit chief Manmohan Samal and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar. Former Union minister Dilip Ray entered the fray as an Independent with BJP support. The BJD nominated party leader Santrupt Misra and eminent urologist Dr Datteswar Hota, with the Congress and the CPI(M) backing the latter.
A candidate required 30 votes to win a seat. In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the BJP has 79 MLAs and the support of three Independents, leaving it with 22 surplus votes after ensuring the victory of its two candidates. This meant Ray, the BJP-backed Independent, required another eight votes to reach the winning mark of 30.
The BJD has 48 MLAs following the suspension of two of its legislators on January 15. The Congress has 14 MLAs and the CPI(M) one. After ensuring the victory of its candidate, the BJD had 18 surplus votes. Hota, the joint Opposition nominee, was expected to win with the support of 18 BJD MLAs, 14 Congress MLAs and one CPI(M) member – three more than the required number.
However, reports indicated that at least eight MLAs from the BJD and Congress voted in favour of Ray, likely paving the way for his surprise victory.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das said three Congress MLAs – Ramesh Jena, Dasarathi Gomango and Sofia Firdous – had “voted in favour of the BJP”. BJD’s Banki MLA Devi Ranjan Tripathy also announced that he voted for the BJP-backed Independent candidate. Another BJD MLA, Souvic Biswal, was also reported to have voted for Ray, with his wife, Dr Ananya Priyadarshini, stating that he had supported the Independent candidate.
