On Monday, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won five seats in the Rajya Sabha in Bihar in the biennial elections, and also two seats in Odisha on cross-voting.
Nitish Kumar, Nitin Nabin Among Winners
At Bihar, candidates of the ruling NDA party comprised of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and BJP national president Nitin Nabin. Voting was done later in the evening and the PTI sources in the alliance said that 202 MLAs of NDA had participated in the polling.
Based on the findings, Nitish Kumar obtained the votes of 44 legislators, and Nitin Nabin also gained support of 44 legislators. Rashtriya Lok Morcha party leader Upendra Kushwaha gained 42 votes of the MLAs and Ramnath Thakur too gained the support of 42 legislators.
NDA Clean Sweep in Bihar Rajya Sabha Elections
In the other hotly contested election, BJP nominee Shivesh Kumar has won over RJD nominee AD Singh in the second-preference vote. Shivesh Kumar grabbed a total vote value of 4, 202 with AD Singh getting a total vote value of 3, 700.
AD Singh had got 37 first-preference votes and Shivesh Kumar got 30 first-preference votes. Nonetheless, the total value of the votes that Shivesh Kumar won after the second-preferential votes count was higher in comparison to A.D. Singh who got no second-preferential vote.
JD(U), the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), and Rashtriya Lok Morcha of Upendra Kushwaha, are the other players of the alliance in the state, where the latter is also a candidate in the contest in the Rajya Sabha.
Three Congress and one RJD MLA still absent in the polling.
Their absence was during a day when even parties which were not part of the opposition coalition like AIMIM and BSP were present in the Assembly.
The AIMIM that holds five MLAs in Bihar Assembly and the solitary BSP legislator claimed to vote in support of RJD contestant Amarendra Dhari Singh.
It was reported that with the absent MLAs in the house, they would have assisted the opposition in getting one of the seats in the Rajya Sabha.
Based on the Rajya Sabha election formula in Bihar, every candidate would have been a winner with at least 41 votes had all the 243 MLAs turned up to vote.
In the meantime, the NDA also won two seats in the Rajya Sabha in Odisha through cross-voting of the MLAs who belonged to the opposition.
The Odisha biennial Rajya Sabha election (2016) results were announced on Monday in which four candidates were elected in the Upper House after a hotly-contested poll that was marred by cross-voting and political intrigue.
