The election to two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand on Friday indicate cross-voting by one member of the ruling JMM-led alliance in favour of the BJP candidate.

JMM chief Shibu Soren and state BJP president Deepak Prakash expectedly won the two seats that fell vacant due to the expiry of terms of Parimal Nathwani and Prem Chand Gupta.

Soren bagged votes of 30 legislators against the required 27, while Prakash received 31 votes and the third candidate, Shahzada Anwar of the Congress, got only 18.

“Yes, Guruji (Soren) got votes from 30 MLAs,” JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya told The Telegraph after the results on Friday evening, adding that one from their camp must have voted for the opponent.

“It reflects the faith the people have on the BJP-led NDA,” said BJP national vice-president Om Prakash Mathur, who along with national secretary Arun Singh, were camping in Ranchi to garner support for their candidate. They had even claimed earlier that Prakash would bag the maximum number of votes.

At the time of polling, the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly had an effective strength of 79 as chief minister Hemant Soren, who had won two seats, has vacated the Dumka seat and retained Barhait, while Rajendra Singh, the Congress MLA from Bermo, died recently. As such, a candidate needed votes from 27 MLAs to win a Rajya Sabha seat from the state.

The JMM’s 29, Congress (17), RJD, CPI-ML and NCP one each took the ruling alliance tally to 49. But Soren and Anwar got support of only 48 legislators.

BJP, on the other hand, has 26 MLAs. It managed to get the support from two Ajsu Party MLAs, besides Independents Amit Yadav and Saryu Roy, taking its tally to 30. Hence, Prakash should have got 30 votes but he bagged 31 instead.