The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies on Thursday won the two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam, dealing a blow to attempts by Congress-led opposition parties to corner one seat.Despite not having the required numbers for both seats, BJP’s Pabitra Margherita and coalition partner United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) candidate Rwngwra Narzary won while Congress’s Ripun Bora failed to secure the required votes.
While Margherita bagged 46 votes and Narzary got 44, Bora secured only 35 votes. One vote was disqualified.
While 43 votes were needed for a candidate to win, with a total of 82 votes in the 126-member assembly, the ruling alliance was short of four votes to win the second seat. But cracks in the opposition allowed it to bag both seats.