Congress Gifts Ambani Man A Rajya Sabha Throne
Parimal Nathwani is going to the Rajya Sabha. Again.For those unfamiliar with Nathwani, who's been a perennial figure in India's Upper House, a brief introduction: He is Group President (Corporate Affairs) of Reliance Industries Ltd. That is Mukesh Ambani's Reliance. The same Mukesh Ambani whom Rahul Gandhi has spent the better part of a decade denouncing from every podium, in every language, in every state, at every election — "Modi ke do dost: Adani aur Ambani."
Nathwani is not a politician in any meaningful sense — he is the corporate world's idea of a senator, a man whose value to Reliance lies entirely in being present in the room where laws are shaped. He has held this position across multiple terms, first from Gujarat, now Jharkhand, always as an Independent, always with BJP backing, and everyone involved has always understood perfectly well what the arrangement is.
None of that is new.
What is new — what makes June 18, 2026 different from every other time Nathwani has walked back into Parliament — is who helped him get there.
Because this time, Parimal Nathwani did not win despite Congress. He won because of Congress.
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10 years of Baming Ambani. One Afternoon Of Electing Him
Let us pause to appreciate the exquisite, almost poetic irony of what just transpired.
Rahul Gandhi has built his post-2019 political identity on one central thesis: that Narendra Modi runs India for the benefit of two men — Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani. He has said this in Parliament. In Bharat Jodo rallies spanning thousands of kilometres. In interviews, in press conferences, in social media posts shared as religious text.
Lose an election? Adani, Ambani. Markets go up? Adani, Ambani. Democracy weakens? "Modi ke do dost," he thunders, and the crowd delivers the response on cue — Adani aur Ambani.
Honestly, it is effective branding. It reduces complicated questions about incompetency and travels well. He has delivered versions of it in Parliament, in London, in Washington, to journalists who nod and call it speaking truth to power. For a man who has struggled to make other political arguments stick, this one stuck far too long.
Until you read who actually sent Nathwani to Rajya Sabha.
That is what makes what happened in Ranchi so extraordinary.
On June 18, the Congress-led Mahagathbandhan — the coalition Congress is a member of and has sent senior leaders to manage, the coalition that runs the government of Jharkhand — failed to prevent Mukesh Ambani's Group President from returning to the Rajya Sabha. Not just failed to prevent it but actively enabled it.
It takes a genuinely rare political talent to spend ten years fighting two billionaires and end up taking side for one like running his parliamentary placement agency.
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The Arithmetic Was Always Cruel
The mathematics going into this vote were not complicated. The Jharkhand assembly has 81 members. To win a Rajya Sabha seat, a candidate needs 28 first-preference votes. The Mahagathbandhan — Hemant Soren's ruling coalition of JMM, Congress, RJD and CPI(ML) — controls 56 MLAs. Exactly 56. The precise mathematical requirement to elect exactly two candidates. Not 57. Not 60. Fifty-six. Two times twenty-eight. Perfect. Airtight.
The NDA — BJP plus its allies — controls 24 MLAs. Four short of the quota. Embarrassingly, helplessly, arithmetically short.
There is also one Independent MLA: Tiger Mehto of the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha. His name suggests a man who votes his conscience. His political inclinations suggest his conscience leans Nathwani.
So: NDA 24 + Tiger Mehto 1 = 25. Still three short.On paper, Nathwani was finished. So saved him? The answer somewhere lies with Rahul Gandhi.
All Congress had to do was hold 56 people together for one afternoon.
JMM knew the math was tight. In what can charitably be called a confidence display and less charitably called a panic attack, they publicly claimed they had 61 votes. From an assembly they control 56 members in. Five MLAs apparently materialized between the press conference and the vote, which would be remarkable if it were true and revealing since it was not.
The dam was leaking and everyone could hear it.
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Three Votes Out. Twenty Votes In. Congress's Candidate Finished.
There's a particular kind of disgruntlement that festers in minor coalition partners, and the RJD's four MLAs in Jharkhand had been marinating in it for a while. Unhappy about power-sharing. Unhappy about respect. Unhappy about being the people whose votes are useful and whose calls go unanswered. Congress knew this. Congress sent leaders to manage it. Tejashwi Yadav was reportedly asked, with increasing urgency, to keep his MLAs in line.
Three of them weren't.
Three votes from inside the Mahagathbandhan crossed to Nathwani. Combined with his 25-vote base, that gave him 28 — the quota exactly, 30 cast with 2 declared invalid. He won on first preferences, clean and simple. No drama, no transfers. Just three people deciding that Ambani's man in Parliament was a better bet than whatever Congress was offering.
Pranav Jha, Congress's own candidate, got 20 votes. He needed 28. He got 20. In a coalition of 56. In a state Congress has governed since 2019. On a vote they had months to prepare for.
Baidyanath Ram of JMM won his seat. The coalition's own man, backed by 34 disciplined JMM MLAs, got home fine. The only person who lost was Congress's candidate, which is to say the only seat that slipped was the one Congress was responsible for holding.
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The BJP Didn't Steal This. Congress Left The Door Open
Here is what the BJP actually did, because they deserve some credit for the craft: they didn't field Nathwani as a BJP candidate. He was an Independent, which means the three MLAs who crossed to him could claim they voted their conscience rather than "BJP ka admi" – an accusation you have to answer. "Independent candidate" is a transaction you do not explain. The BJP identified the fault line — a restless RJD caucus — filed their paperwork correctly, and waited for Congress to do the rest.
This is how the door was left open.
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The Villain You Never Threaten Is Not An Enemy. He's A campaign Budget
There is a version of events where you feel some sympathy for the Congress leadership. Coalition management is genuinely difficult. The RJD relationship was structurally fractious. Minor partners everywhere in India are fractious. This is not unique to Jharkhand.
That version doesn't survive the slogan.
But you don't get to make "Ambani" the central villain of your political identity and then be the reason Ambani's man returns to Parliament. You don't get to do that and keep the slogan.
The crowd will still chant it — since crowds are sometimes loyal for unknown reasons but everybody knows that the logic has expired — and the charge is gone now. Because the natural question, asked quietly at first and then louder, is: if crony capitalism is what you say it is, and this is what you do when you govern, what exactly are you offering?
Not one Reliance contract has been disrupted. Not one regulatory decision has gone against the company's interests. Ambani's man has been in Parliament, term after term, and the speeches have continued. There's a school of thought — uncomfortable but not unreasonable — that suggests the billionaire villain is more politically valuable to Rahul Gandhi as a permanent target than he would ever be as a defeated one.
Hence, a villain you never actually threaten is not an enemy. He's a prop.
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Modi Ke Do Dost. Aur Teesra Kabhi Kabhi Congress.
For years the chant has been simple. Modi ke do dost: Adani aur Ambani.
But on June 18, when Parimal Nathwani needed three votes he didn't have, it wasn't the BJP that found them. The BJP had already given everything it could. It was tapped out at 25. The three votes that closed the gap came from inside the Mahagathbandhan. From the alliance Rahul Gandhi leads. From Congress's coalition.
Maybe the slogan needs a small update.
Modi ke do dost.
Aur teesra: kabhi kabhi, Congress.
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Rahul Gandhi's Slogan Helped.
Parimal Nathwani is going back to Parliament. Mukesh Ambani keeps his man in Delhi. And Rahul Gandhi — after a decade of anti-crony capitalism speeches delivered on three continents — has just presided over one of the more efficient acts of corporate service.
The next time he asks who Modi's friends are, the crowd will answer the way they always do. But the real answer is missing someone.
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