Ranchi: After facing defeat in the Rajya Sabha poll due to alleged cross-voting, the Congress party is now pinning its hopes on Chief Minister Hemant Soren for his response and action. The party stated that the loss of one of the two seats should be seen as a loss for the entire INDIA alliance, not just one party.
Congress MLAs Stand United
Putting up a united front, all 16 Congress MLAs, flanked by state unit president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh, reiterated that their entire flock remained intact during the voting process. This comes amid an ongoing blame game with other allies — the RJD and CPI(ML).
Soon after the defeat, Congress's Jharkhand affairs in-charge K Raju said they did not receive support from allies RJD and CPI(ML), accusing them of cross-voting for NDA-backed candidate Parimal Nathwani. This triggered a war of words. On Friday, the other two parties criticized Raju and the grand old party, accusing them of ditching their own candidate.
Call for Action
Addressing the media, Mahto said, “CM Hemant Soren, who is the leader of the INDIA bloc, was at the helm in devising modalities for the RS poll. Going by the number of legislators (56) in our favor, we should have easily won both seats. But that didn’t happen, as our candidate didn’t get support due to ‘betrayal’ from some quarters. Now, we all await how the CM will respond to the result. We are confident he will investigate and take action against the guilty.”
Congress MLAs reaffirmed that they had voted in favor of their candidate, Pranav Jha. Targeting the BJP, they claimed the party should introspect on why it could not field a local candidate and instead brought in an outsider.
Appeal for Unity
Congress also appealed to alliance partners to avoid public blame games and focus on facts. “The result calls for introspection, especially in light of the NDA-backed candidate’s win despite INDIA’s decisive mandate in the 2024 assembly poll. Congress has always respected the alliance dharma,” said Finance Minister Radha Krishana Kishore.
Taking a dig, state BJP president Aditya Sahu said, “Despite several humiliations, Congress doesn’t have the courage to walk out of the alliance government and will continue blaming the BJP.”
