JMM chief, BJP candidate win 2 seats

RANCHI: Ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren and BJP’s Deepak Prakash won the two Rajya Sabha seats for which polling was held on Friday. A candidate needed 27 first preference votes to win. Soren got 30, while Prakash 31 votes. Shahzada Anwar, who contested unsuccessfully, could manage 18 votes.

The ruling JMM has 29 legislators in the assembly while the BJP 26 and Congress 15. The All Jharkhand Students Union Party’s two and independent lawmakers also voted for Prakash.

Prakash thanked BJP’s national leadership and the lawmakers for ensuring his victory. “We always maintained that we have the numbers .... Ideally, this election should not have happened and even JMM president should have got elected uncontested. But Congress fielded its candidate and forced an election,” Prakash said.