Voting begins for election to two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Published - June 18, 2026 12:51 pm IST - Ranchi Congress candidate Pranav Jha, left, with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Baidyanath Ram after they cast their votes during the Rajya Sabha elections, at Jharkhand Assembly, in Ranchi on Thursday (June 18, 2026). | Photo Credit: PTi Voting is underway for the election to two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand on Thursday (June 18, 2026), amid adequate security arrangements on the Assembly premises, an official said. Three candidates — BJP-backed Independent nominee Parimal Nathwani, JMM's Baidyanath Ram and Pranav Jha of the Congress — are in the fray for the two seats. The voting started at 9 a.m. at a polling station set up in the Assembly complex amid fear of cross-voting, and will continue till 4 p.m. All NDA legislators arrived in the assembly in a bus directly from the hotel where they camped, while Congress MLAs reached the premises in a bus. Chief Minister Hemant Soren also reached the Assembly to cast his vote. BJP chief whip Naveen Jaiswal, who was the first to exercise his franchise, said, “Twenty-one party legislators and one each from AJSU party, JD(U) and LJP (RV) cast their votes. All votes went to NDA- supported candidate Parimal Nathwani.” Mr. Nathwani exuded confidence about his victory. "I have support from all parties, and I am assured of my victory. Everything will be clear by the evening," he said. JD(U) leader Saryu Rai said his vote will go to the NDA-backed nominee. Asked if he is sure of Mr. Nathwani's win, Mr. Rai said, "This is not my subject. I know about my vote, which will go to him." RJD legislator Suresh Paswan claimed that there is no doubt that the INDIA bloc candidates will secure victory. Congress minister Shilpi Neha Tirkey said they have adequate numbers and are confident of winning both the Rajya Sabha seats. After the NDA, the INDIA bloc legislators started exercising their franchise. "All arrangements, including adequate security, are in place to hold the polling peacefully," an Assembly official said, adding that the counting of votes is likely to commence at 5 p.m. The BJP-led NDA has 24 MLAs, four short of the minimum of 28 first-preference votes required in the 81-member Assembly to secure a berth in the Upper House of Parliament. The ruling INDIA bloc, including the JMM and the Congress, has 56 members in the House. JMM's Baidyanath Ram is expected to win easily, as the party has 34 members in the state Assembly. Among the other INDIA bloc constituents, the Congress has 16 MLAs, the RJD has 4 legislators, and the CPI(ML) Liberation has two. All eyes are on the second seat, in which a tough fight between Congress' Jha and NDA-backed Nathwani is likely. The NDA's 24 MLAs include 21 from the BJP and one each from the LJP (Ram Vilas), AJSU Party and the JD(U). The Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha has one MLA. Both the ruling and opposition camps were leaving no stone unturned to keep their MLAs intact ahead of the polling. The NDA MLAs were shifted to a hotel in Ranchi on Tuesday (June 16), while the ruling INDIA bloc was busy holding meetings with its MLAs to thwart chances of cross-voting. The INDIA bloc MLAs, including those from the Congress, participated in a mock poll during a meeting at Chief Minister Hemant Soren's residence on Tuesday (June 16) night to make the new legislators aware of the exercise. Jharkhand / voting / election / Jharkhand Mukti Morcha / Indian National Congress / Bharatiya Janata Party Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Voting begins for election to two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand

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Voting begins for election to two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand

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