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Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and film star-politician Shatrughan Sinha were some of prominent winners in the Rajya Sabha election on Wednesday.
Mallya won as an independent candidate from Karnataka, which also elected three Congress candidates -- B Janardhan Poojary, Prema Cariappa and M V Rajashekharan.
Laloo Prasad Yadav and Bharatiya Janata Party's Shatrughan Sinha were elected from Bihar. Sinha managed to stay on in the House by garnering 37 votes, one more than the effective strength of the party in the 243-member Bihar assembly.
Laloo Yadav got 49 votes, while two other RJD candidates, Prem Gupta and Ramdeo Bhandari, got 43 votes and 41 votes respectively.
Mallya was declared elected by the returning officer with 46 votes amid high political drama that saw the BJP candidate Taradevi Siddarth defeated in the exciting contest for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat from Karnataka.
Poojary polled the highest among the four winners with 50 votes, while Cariappa secured 45, and Rajashekaran got 44 votes.
Though Mallya contested as an independent candidate with the official support of the Janata Dal conglomerate having only 23 votes, it is now apparent that cross-voting by some BJP rebel MLAs helped him win.
Thanking all the MLAs who voted for him irrespective of the party affiliation, Mallya said: "I came to know that I had won in the first round itself when I was told officially that I had polled 46 votes. Then I came out of the counting centre to thank all those who whole-heartedly backed me in my first political battle."
Asked whom he would represent in the Rajya Sabha since he had won the seat with the backing of the non-BJP parties, Mallya told rediff.com that he would represent the people of Karnataka, though he was going to the Upper House as an independent member.
"I've just won. Let me first enjoy and share my victory with my family members and others. I will announce my political thoughts and plans for the people of Karnataka after some time," he said.
In Rajasthan, three Congress nominees, including senior party leader Natwar Singh, were elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Some of the other winners were former Union minister Abrar Ahmed and Mahila Congress leader Prabha Thakur.
Natwar Singh polled the highest 55 votes followed by Thakur (54 votes) and Ahmed (53 votes).
Meanwhile, reports from Shimla said that BJP candidate Suresh Bharadwaj was elected from Himachal Pradesh defeating his rival Natha Singh of Congress by eight votes.
Bharadwaj polled 38 votes against 30 votes polled by his rival Natha Singh. The seat was vacated following retirement of Chandresh Kumari of Congress, whose term expires next month.
Nationalist Congress Party candidate Robert Kharshiing also won the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Meghalaya, defeating Congress' sitting member O L Nongtdu by a margin of 32 votes.
Kharshiing polled 46 votes and his opponent polled 14. All the 60 members of the state assembly cast their votes.
From West Bengal, Communist Party of India-Marxist candidates Tarini Roy, Prasanta Chatterjee and Khabiruddin Ahmed, Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and Trinamool Congress' Dinesh Trivedi were elected.
The sixth candidate Arjun Sengupta (Congress) tasted defeat.
From Jharkhand, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren, whose party badly lacked the number to win, romped home comfortably with the help 14 surplus votes in Jharkhand assembly.
Prominent among those elected are Congress leader Murli Deora, Union Minister V P Goyal and Videocon Chairman V Dhoot.
With inputs from Fakir Chand in Bangalore and Anand Mohan Sahay in Patna
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