Political parties on Thursday staved off the scare of cross-voting in favour of Independents as their official candidates romped home comfortably in Rajya Sabha elections held across five states.
Among the prominent winners were liquor baron Vijay Mallya from Karnataka, Union minister Anand Sharma from Rajasthan, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan from Bihar, top lawyer Ram Jethmalani from Rajasthan and former BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu from Karnataka.
Karnataka rivals BJP and JD(S) joined forces to ensure an easy win for Mr Mallya, with second Congress nominee T.V. Maruthi failing to get the support of the required number of MLAs. The Congress’ first nominee Oscar Fernandes won easily on the basis of first preference votes.
In Rajasthan, two each of the Congress and BJP managed to get through amid high drama as rival camps struggled to avoid invalidation of their MLAs’ votes. Congress-backed Indep-endent Santosh Bagrodia, a former Union minister who had been a member of the Rajya Sabha for the party, lost in the election by a huge margin when he got only 11 votes against the 41 first preference votes required for victory.