Congress's RS loss in Jharkhand: Fresh trouble in INDIA bloc over ‘cross-voting’

As expected, Congress nominee Pranav Jha’s defeat against BJP-backed independent candidate Parimal Nathwani in the Rajya Sabha polls from Jharkhand, on Thursday (June 18), has triggered fresh turbulence within the INDIA alliance.

Polling was held on Thursday for two Rajya Sabha seats in Ranchi. The INDIA bloc, which has 56 MLAs in the Jharkhand Assembly, was expected to register victory in both seats. To win, the JMM’s Baidyanath Ram and Congress’s Jha each required 28 first preference votes of MLAs; a mark the two candidates could have easily reached had all INDIA bloc legislators voted for them.

Allegations against RJD, CPI (M-L) L

While Ram polled two votes above the required mark, Jha received support of just 21 MLAs, of which one legislator’s vote was declared invalid. Nathwani, who had the backing of 24 MLAs from the rival BJP-led NDA coalition, however, bagged 30 votes (with two declared invalid) to emerge victorious amid clear signs of cross-voting.

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In the immediate aftermath of the results, K Raju, the Congress’s in-charge for Jharkhand who was present at the state Assembly premises during the poll process, claimed Jha received votes of all 16 Congress legislators and four MLAs from chief minister Hemant Soren’s JMM. However, Raju alleged that legislators from Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD and the CPI (M-L) L had cross-voted for Nathwani.

CPI (M-L) L writes protest letter to Kharge

Raju’s claim, endorsed by several Jharkhand Congress MLAs, has now triggered a war of words among INDIA bloc partners in Jharkhand with CPI (M-L) L general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya dashing off a protest letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

“We are shocked to see that the Congress is blaming our MLAs in Jharkhand for the defeat of Congress nominee Pranav Jha... this is a malicious lie,” wrote Bhattacharya, asserting that both MLAs of his party had voted for Jha and got their ballots “duly verified” by the party’s polling agent.

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“I write to you to express our strong protest against the wholly unfounded and malicious propaganda… and the attempted tarnishing of our party’s image… Our party has been one of the most committed constituents of the INDIA bloc since its formation. We call upon you to ask Congress leaders to stop making unverified and unwarranted allegations against alliance that undermine mutual trust,” Bhattacharya added.

What RJD said

The RJD, which has four MLAs in the Jharkhand Assembly, echoed similar views. Refuting the Congress’s allegations of cross-voting by RJD MLAs, Bhola Yadav, the RJD’s polling agent for the election told The Federal, “Congress leaders should speak responsibly and first find out who among their MLAs voted for Nathwani because not only in Jharkhand but all over the country the Congress has a history of its MLAs cross-voting for BJP candidates in Rajya Sabha elections while our party and our leader Lalu Yadav has never compromised with fascist forces… before casting the votes, all four RJD MLAs showed their ballots to me and I can confirm that they had voted for Jha.”

Yadav also reminded the Congress that in March this year, the RJD’s Rajya Sabha candidate from Bihar, senior leader AD Singh, had lost the election because of “cross-voting by three Congress MLAs” but “neither Lalu or Tejashwi nor any other leader from our party blamed the Congress then for the result even though their MLAs had openly said they voted for the BJP candidate instead of AD Singh.”

In a post on X (Formerly Twitter), the RJD went all out to slam the Congress and even released a video showing Bihar Congress MLAs admitting to voting for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls held in March.

“Rajya Sabha election results in Jharkhand state have made it clear that the Congress failed to secure the support of its own MLAs. Before levelling baseless accusations against other parties, it should introspect and reflect how in the Rajya Sabha elections last March, five MLAs from Congress in Haryana, two from Odisha, and three from Bihar openly cross-voted in favour of the BJP... their (Congress) leaders are making a failed attempt to hide their own failure and incompetence while damaging the anti-BJP credibility of the RJD and CPI (M-L) L. Such flippant and hasty remarks from these leaders harm the unity of the INDIA bloc,” said a post on the RJD’s official X handle.

JMM’s silence

Interestingly, the sharp rebuttals from the RJD and the CPI (M-L) L are in stark contrast to the complete silence from the JMM and the Congress’s statements. While chief minister Hemant Soren was quick to congratulate Ram and Nathwani on their victories, neither he nor any senior JMM leader has, so far, spoken about the machinations that led to Jha’s defeat.

Sources in the Congress’s Jharkhand unit say while they suspect a “coordinated sabotage” of Jha’s election by the JMM and the RJD, they are “deliberately silent” on Soren’s possible role in Thursday’s fiasco. While Congress leaders like Jharkhand minister Irfan Ansari are publicly blaming the RJD for “settling scores” with the Congress for AD Singh’s Rajya Sabha poll defeat in March, the allegations against the JMM are being pushed covertly.

That the equations between Soren and the Congress in Jharkhand have been frosty for some time now is widely known. Congress sources say JMM chief has had an axe to grind with the Congress (and even the RJD) since his party was denied a share of seats in the Bihar Assembly polls last year. Earlier this year, seat-sharing talks between the two parties for the Assam Assembly polls had also failed, after which the JMM had announced candidates on 21 seats in the state. The Jharkhand Rajya Sabha polls too had seen the two allies bicker, with the JMM expressing its resistance to Jha’s candidature before finally endorsing it following an intervention by Central Congress leaders.

“We know what role Soren has played in cross-voting, but we can’t go public about it because we are in government in Jharkhand because of the JMM,” said a senior Congress MLA from the state, adding that “open confrontation” with Soren could encourage him to dump the Congress as its ally and, more importantly, drift towards the BJP.