Jharkhand Legislative Assembly LoP and BJP leader Babulal Marandi arrives at a hotel ahead of polls to two Rajya Sabha seats, in Ranchi, on June 16, 2026.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Days ahead of the polling for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand, MLAs of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Tuesday (June 16, 2026) started shifting to a luxury hotel in Ranchi.
The polling for the two seats will take place on June 18. One seat has become vacant following the death of Dishom Guru Shibu Soren last year, while the other vacancy is due to the completion of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Deepak Prakash’s tenure on June 21.
Jharkhand BJP leaders have already expressed confidence in the victory of the BJP-backed Independent candidate Parimal Nathwani in one of the two seats in the State. From the INDIA bloc, Baidyanath Ram of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Pranav Jha of the Congress are the two candidates.
“All the MLAs have been called here for the training purpose. We will stay here for two days and will directly go to the Assembly for the voting on June 18,” BJP MLA from Barkagaon Roshan Lal Choudhary told reporters.
Going by the numbers, the BJP-led NDA does not have the required MLAs to ensure Mr. Nathwani’s victory, as a candidate must secure a minimum of 28 first-preference votes to emerge victorious. The BJP-backed candidate can only win if they manage to get the first-preference votes of four more MLAs through cross-voting.
Out of the total 81 seats in the Jharkhand Assembly, the ruling INDIA bloc has 56 MLAs. They include 34 MLAs of the JMM, the Congress 16, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) 4 and the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (Liberation) 2. Whereas, the opposition alliance has a total of 24 MLAs, comprising 21 MLAs of the BJP and one each of the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). Additionally, the House has one independent legislator.
LJP (RV) MLA Janardan Paswan said, “I have been asked to be in Ranchi in this hotel. We all will stay here till June 17 evening and the next day we will directly go to the Assembly to cast vote.”
BJP MLA from Jamua Manju Devi said the BJP was not afraid of anyone, and they would be given the training on how to cast the vote on the day of voting.
JD-(U) MLA Saryu Roy did not reach the hotel as he was out of Ranchi. Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc MLAs held a mock polling at the residence of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and the exercise will be repeated on June 17 as well at the same venue.
Published – June 16, 2026 09:45 pm IST
