New Delhi: The Congress party faced surprise defeat in the election for two Rajya Sabha seats in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly, with the INDIA alliance’s mathematical advantage disappearing on account of cross-voting and one invalid vote. As a result, the NDA-backed independent candidate, Parimal Nathwani, a Reliance executive, grabbed the second seat.The INDIA alliance has 56 MLAs: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has 34, the Congress 16, the Rashtriya Janata Dal has four and the CPI (ML) two.The BJP and its allies in the NDA have 24 MLAs, while Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) has 1 MLA in the assembly.Each winning candidate needed 28 votes based on the Rajya Sabha electoral system, in which the winning quota is arrived at by dividing total valid votes by seats plus one, then adding one to the sum.Parimal Nathwani during the Rajya Sabha elections in Ranchi, June 18, 2026. Photo: PTIBy this logic, each candidate needed 28 votes to win. The INDIA alliance’s Baidyanath Ram, the JMM candidate, and Pranav Jha of the Congress party were thus poised for clear victories, had the votes been distributed in that fashion (28 each from the alliance’s tally of 56).On the other hand, the NDA started out four short of the 28 needed.But what actually happened is that Ram got 30 votes – two more than required to sail through – and Jha got only 20, eight votes short of the target 28. NDA’s Nathwani got 28 votes, four more than the NDA’s tally.The total votes counted were 78, as three votes were declared invalid in the 81-member house.Where did the votes go?Reports say that at least five INDIA votes cross-voted in favour of Nathwani instead of the Congress candidate. Add to that the one Congress MLA’s vote that was invalid. In effect, the INDIA tally became 56 minus five cross-votes, minus one invalid Congress vote, reducing its strength to 50. The “extra” votes the JMM candidate got were also effectively alliance votes that did not help the Congress.Meanwhile, Nathwani gained the five cross-votes, which, together with support from outside the INDIA bloc, helped him make it to the quota despite two BJP votes being declared invalid.Charges traded and deniedCross-voting reports emerged after Nathwani secured 28 votes, higher than the NDA’s tally in Jharkhand, Hindustan Times reports.Deccan Herald reports that Congress party’s Jharkhand in-charge K. Raju said in Ranchi, the state capital, that the “RJD and CPI(ML) betrayed us. They didn’t vote for us, and that’s why we lost. We received JMM’s four votes, and all Congress MLAs voted in favour of our candidate.”CPI(ML) chief Dipankar Bhattacharya rejected the accusations in media interviews and the party later issued a statement on X saying “both our MLAs voted in favour of the Congress candidate, in accordance with the decision taken beforehand”.Regarding the speculation being spread about voting in the Jharkhand RS election, we wish to state with full responsibility that both our MLAs voted in favour of the Congress candidate, in accordance with the decision taken beforehand. The votes cast by CPI(ML) Liberation MLAs…— CPIML Liberation (@cpimlliberation) June 18, 2026