By IANS,
Patna : Five candidates from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), were elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar Thursday despite cross-voting by some legislators.
Official sources said that LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Janata Dal-United’s Upendra Kushwaha and R.C.P. Singh and RJD’s Ram Kripal Yadav have been elected to the Rajya Sabha after the counting of votes concluded.
Cross-voting by nine legislators, including one from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), five from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and two RJD legislators, in favour of the RJD and JD-U in the elections ended the hopes of an independent candidate to make it to the upper house.
BJP legislator Banwari Ram and four BSP legislators, including Sita Sundari, admitted voting for RJD’s Ram Kirpal Yadav ignoring party whips. Another BSP legislator and two RJD legislators voted for the JD-U candidate.
Sources in the state assembly told IANS that B.G. Uday, a Bangalore-based businessman nominated as the sixth candidate for the five seats, had got only two votes until the afternoon.
The Bihar assembly has 243 legislators.
Bihar’s Minority Welfare Minister Sahid Ali Khan said all the five candidates from different parties have emerged victorious. “The legislators voted for their parties,” he said.
Paswan got 39 votes, Rudy got 47 and JD-U’s R.C.P. Singh, a former Indian Administrative Service officer, got 47, while his party colleague Upendra Kushwaha got 48 votes. RJD’s Ram Kirpal Yadav got 38 votes.
The RJD and LJP have 68 legislators against the requirement of 76 to ensure victory of both their nominees.
The presence of Uday as the sixth candidate created fears of cross-voting.
An independent legislator, Dadan Pahalwan, who faces several criminal cases, and five other legislators, including independents, proposed Uday’s nomination. But most of them, except Pahalwan, changed sides at the last moment.
The Congress, with 10 legislators, abstained from voting. The JD-U and BJP with 135 legislators had 21 votes surplus over the 114 required to ensure the victory of their three nominees.