NDA-backed Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani on Thursday won one of the two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand amid cross-voting, defeating the Congress’s Pranav Jha, coming days after the setback the Opposition party suffered in Madhya Pradesh under questionable circumstances.

The ruling JMM candidate, Baidyanath Ram, was elected to the other seat.

Of the 26 Rajya Sabha seats in 12 states where polls and bypolls were held, contests took place only in Jharkhand and Mizoram on Thursday.

The NDA has won 19, the INDIA bloc 6 and the Zoram People’s Movement 1, which doesn’t significantly alter the political alignment in the Rajya Sabha.

The blow to the Congress in Jharkhand comes days after the rejection of its leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh, which led to the BJP sweeping all three seats in the state.

In both Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the BJP fielded more candidates than its legislative strength, in the expectation that the Congress MLAs or their allies would break ranks. Party whips do not exist for Rajya Sabha polls. However, MLAs need to show their votes to designated polling agents of their parties.

In Jharkhand, the INDIA bloc has 56 out of 81 MLAs, enough to elect two Rajya Sabha MPs. Of the 56, the JMM has 34 — enough to elect an MP on its own. The Congress has 16, the RJD 4, and CPI(ML)-Liberation 2. The JMM, Congress and the RJD are part of the government, while the Liberation supports it from outside.

The NDA has 24 MLAs, four short of the number needed to elect an MP to the Upper House. Yet it backed outgoing YSR Congress MP Nathwani, a senior executive with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group.

A candidate needed 28 first-preference votes to win. The Assembly secretariat said in a statement that the JMM got 30 votes, Independent Nathwani 28, and the Congress 20. Three votes were declared invalid.

BJP sources confirmed that two invalid votes were for Nathwani. The JMM received two additional first-preference votes, which should have gone to the Congress. Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha MLA Jairam Mahato did not reveal who he voted for.

Senior Congress leader K.N. Tripathi told The Telegraph: “I have been continuously telling the party for a year that the JMM is not sincere about the alliance and we will pay heavily if we continue to rely on them.”

Congress Jharkhand in-charge K. Raju told reporters after the counting: “Our JMM candidate received 30 votes. We also received the votes of all four JMM MLAs, while the Congress candidate secured 20 votes. So, I consider my party to have won (because)... in other states, some Congress MLAs cross-voted during the Rajya Sabha elections.”

Raju’s statement implied that the RJD and the CPI(ML)-Liberation cross-voted — an allegation the Left party’s general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and RJD Jharkhand chief and MLA Sanjay Yadav denied. Both parties said that the Congress’s flock went astray.

Senior leaders of both parties were polling agents. JMM MP-elect Ram told reporters: “It’s a matter of numbers. If Parimal Nathwani surpassed the numbers, I congratulate him.”