RANCHI, June 19 -- Punching a hole in the claims of unity within the ruling INDIA bloc in Jharkhand, NDA-backed independent candidate Parimal Nathwani won one of the two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand, alongside JMM's Baidyanath Ram who secured the maximum of 30 first-preference votes. Assembly officials said that Nathwani managed 28 first preference votes defeating Congress' Pranav Jha, who secured only 20 first preference votes, stoking allegations of cross-voting by legislators from the ruling camp. The JMM candidate managed to get a maximum of 30 first preference votes. All 81 MLAs in the Jharkhand Assembly cast their votes. Three votes were declared invalid. It was not known whose votes were declared invalid. Among the other INDIA bloc constituents, the JMM has 34 legislators, Congress has 16 MLAs, the RJD has 4 legislators, and the CPI(ML) Liberation has two. Going by the numbers, the JMM candidate was the favourite as the candidate required 28 first preference votes to win. All eyes were on the second seat, which was locked in a tough fight between Congress' Jha and NDA-backed Nathwani. 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 (JLKM) has one MLA. Besides the backing of the 24 NDA MLAs initially, Nathwani secured four more votes from the ruling camp and emerged victorious. While the NDA camp celebrates Nathwani's victory, Jharkhand Congress in-charge K Raju accused INDIA bloc allies RJD and CPI (ML-L) of 'betraying' the alliance. "I was also the party agent for the party. I can confirm in writing that all 16 legislators of the Congress remained intact. We also received four votes from the JMM, taking our tally to 20. The RJD and the CPI-ML have betrayed us. The BJP didn't field a candidate of its own and backed an independent candidate who used money power to win," Raju said after the result. Rejecting the charge, Jharkhand RJD chief and legislator Sanjay Prasad Yadav said Raju was unaware of the RJD's history in the state. "We are disciples of Lalu Prasad. We would go to jail but can never betray anyone. Our top leadership sent their most trusted man, Bhola Yadav, from Patna who became the party agent. We are not Lord Hanuman that we open our chests and prove our loyalty," Yadav added. Arup Chatterjee, legislature party leader of CPI (ML-L), said the Congress should introspect why it was unable to keep its flock together. "The charge is baseless. We voted for the alliance. We had no other choice. The party leadership appointed the senior leader as a party agent. At such moments the bigger parties join hands and make smaller parties like us the scapegoat. We could have taken gurantee of our legislators. It's the Congress that should introspect why it could not keep the flock together," he added. Expressing happiness over the result, senior BJP leader and Jharkhand Assembly Leader of the Opposition Babulal Marandi said MLAs voted in favour of Nathwani because of his previous track record. "People of the state and the legislators of all parties have also seen the development work that Nathwani ji has done in the state during his previous two terms between 2008 and 2020. Besides NDA legislators he got support from legislators of other parties as well because the legislators of Jharkhand are mature enough to assess who would work more for the state," he added....