Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi , Mahesh Poddar win Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand

RANCHI: Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar bagged the two Rajya Sabha seats for BJP from Jharkhand, election to which was held today.

Poddar won on Naqvi's first preference votes.

While Naqvi got first preference vote of 2900, the surplus 264 votes went to Poddar making his count 2664 and pushing JMM's Basant Soren to the third position with 2600, election officials said.

Out of total 81 MLAs, 79 cast their votes, they said.

JMM MLA Charma Linda and Congress MLA Devendra Singh could not cast their vote.

Earlier, in the day police said JMM MLA Chamra Linda was arrested following a 2013 arrest warrant in connection with a scuffle with the guards near the assembly gates.

The Congress MLA also could not vote as he too faced an arrest warrant.

But another Congress MLA Nirmla Devi, who too is facing a warrant, managed to cast her vote as she was escorted by JMM working president and former chief minister Hemant Soren into the assembly.