NDA sweeps Rajya Sabha: Clean sweep in Bihar, coup in Odisha, chaos in Haryana
The voting day will be remembered as one of the most turbulent days in recent Rajya Sabha electoral history, a day that had it all: allegations of horse-trading , arrests in Bengaluru, missing MLAs, fistfights inside an assembly, a jailed MLA arriving in a prisoner van, a mid-poll disruption, and a Congress president writing to the Election Commission over interference claims. Across Bihar, Odisha, and Haryana, democracy played out in its most unfiltered, dramatic form.
Voting for 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states was held on Monday, with 26 candidates already elected unopposed. The real battle was concentrated in three states, Bihar with 5 seats, Odisha with 4, and Haryana with 2, where 14 candidates contested 11 seats.
Of the 26 seats decided without a contest, BJP secured 7, Congress 5, TMC 4, and DMK 3, with stalwarts like Babul Supriyo , advocate Menaka Guruswamy , actor Koel Mallick , and senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi among those entering the Upper House unopposed. Counting for the remaining 11 contested seats commenced at 5 PM.
Odisha was the undisputed epicenter of the day's chaos. The state's four seats became a focal point amid serious allegations of horse-trading and bribery. Naveen Patnaik , visibly incensed, told reporters that individuals were arrested in Bengaluru for allegedly handing blank cheques to MLAs, including eight of Congress's own 14 legislators who had been moved to Karnataka to prevent poaching. Polling was briefly halted for nearly 30 minutes over a dispute regarding the issuance of a second ballot paper to a BJP MLA, drawing sharp objections from Patnaik, and BJD and BJP MLAs even came to blows inside the assembly. By afternoon, nearly 10 opposition MLAs , five from the BJD and three from Congress, had crossed over to vote for BJP-backed independent Dilip Ray , a hotel chain founder and a close associate of the late Biju Patnaik who had famously fallen out with Naveen Patnaik over the years. Tellingly, BJP had housed its MLAs at Ray's own Mayfair Hotel in Paradip ahead of the vote. One cross-voting BJD MLA, Debiranjan Tripathy , was unapologetic: "I voted for Dilip Babu, who comes from the Biju legacy. This party is not a private limited of Naveen Babu." Bhakta Charan Das confirmed that three of his MLAs, Ramesh Jena , Dasarathi Gomango , and Sofia Firdous , had defected, and warned disqualification proceedings would follow. By evening, Dilip Ray was officially declared the winner of the fourth seat, dealing Patnaik his third major setback after losing 24 years of power in the 2024 general elections and BJD's humiliating defeat in the Nawapara bypoll in November 2025.
Bihar told a similar story for the opposition. Congress leaders scrambled to contact Manoj Biswas from Forbesganj and Surendra Prasad from Valmikinagar, who had gone missing on polling day with phones switched off, while RJD MLA Faisal Rahman from Dhaka was also absent. In a moment that perfectly captured the day's surreal atmosphere, Anant Singh arrived at the Bihar Assembly in a prisoner van directly from jail to cast his vote, declaring he was certain the NDA would sweep all five seats, and he was right. With NDA fielding Nitish Kumar , Nitin Nabin , Ram Nath Thakur , Upendra Kushwaha , and Shivesh Kumar , the alliance swept Bihar comprehensively , leaving Amarendra Dhari Singh with no path to victory.
Perhaps the most symbolically significant victory of the day in Bihar belonged to two men. Nitish Kumar enters the Rajya Sabha at a moment of peak political relevance, having steered the NDA to a crushing majority in the state and remaining the most indispensable ally in Prime Minister Modi's coalition. His entry into the Upper House signals not a retirement from active politics but a strategic repositioning , giving him a national platform at a critical juncture. Equally noteworthy is the rise of Nitin Nabin , one of the party's most energetic organisational faces in the state. A trusted lieutenant of the BJP's central leadership, Nabin's election to the Rajya Sabha is widely seen as a reward for his pivotal role in consolidating BJP's ground presence in Bihar and a clear signal that the party intends to deepen its roots in the state well ahead of the next assembly elections.
Haryana added its own twist. Congress, wary of cross-voting, had pre-emptively moved its MLAs to Himachal Pradesh on Friday. Anil Vij , wheelchair-bound, made headlines by insisting on casting his vote, declaring he would have come "even on a stretcher." However, as counting began at 5 PM, proceedings were abruptly halted, both BJP and Congress raised objections over voting secrecy , with Mallikarjun Kharge personally writing to the Election Commission alleging interference. As expected, BJP’s Sanjay Bhatia won the first seat comfortably. In a dramatic and fiercely contested election for the second seat , Congress candidate Karamvir Singh Baudh defeated Satish Nandal despite the Election Commission invalidating four Congress MLAs’ votes. Crediting Congress workers for the victory, Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda said the BJP had tried “every illicit method” and alleged that the four valid votes were wrongly deemed invalid, but the party still managed to secure the seat.
By evening, the scale of NDA's dominance was unmistakable. With today's results, NDA is poised to further consolidate its Rajya Sabha tally of 134 seats in the 234-member House, against the Opposition INDIA bloc's 80. The day ultimately belonged to the NDA, but the images of defections, arrests, a prisoner van, and political betrayal will linger far longer than the results themselves.