Ranchi: After facing defeat in Rajya Sabha poll due to alleged cross-voting, Congress is now pinning hopes on chief minister Hemant Soren for his response and action stating that loss on one of the two seats should been seen as the loss of the INDIA alliance and not just of one party.Putting up a united front, all 16 Congress MLAs, flanked by state unit president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh, reiterated that its entire flock remained intact during the voting process, amid the ongoing blame game with other allies — RJD and CPI(ML).Soon after the defeat, Congress’s Jharkhand affairs in-charge K Raju had said that they didn’t get support from allies — RJD and CPI(ML) — accusing them of having cross-voted for NDA-backed candidate Parimal Nathwani, triggering a war of words. On Friday, the other two parties criticised Raju and the grand old party, accusing them of ditching their own candidate.Addressing the media, Mahto said, “CM Hemant Soren, who is the leader of INDIA bloc, was at the helm in devising modalities for RS poll. Going by the number of legislators (56) in our favour, we should have easily won both the seats. But that didn’t happen, as our candidate didn’t get support due to ‘betrayal’ from some quarters. Now, we all await how the CM will respond to the result. We are confident he will investigate and take action against the guilty.”Congress MLAs reaffirmed that they had voted in favour of their candidate (Pranav Jha).Targeting the BJP, they claimed the party should introspect on why it could not field a local candidate and instead brought in an outsider.Congress also appealed to alliance partners to avoid public blame games and focus on facts. “The result calls for introspection, especially in light of the NDA-backed candidate’s win despite INDIA’s decisive mandate in the 2024 assembly poll. Congress has always respected the alliance dharma,” said finance minister Radha Krishana Kishore.Taking a dig, state BJP president Aditya Sahu said, “Despite several humiliations, Congress doesn’t have the courage to walk out of the alliance govt and will continue blaming the BJP.”