The NDA on Monday swept all five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar and won three of the four seats in Odisha, where cross-voting by Opposition members aided BJP-led NDA candidates.At least three Odisha Congress MLAs and several BJD MLAs are learnt to have cross-voted in favour of Independent candidate Dilip Ray, who was backed by the BJP, paving the way for his victory. Based on its strength in the Odisha Assembly, the ruling BJP had comfortably won two seats from the state, but it managed to wrest a third as Ray, a former Union minister, secured an easy win aided by Opposition cross-voting.The fourth seat went to the BJD’s Santrupt Mishra.In Bihar, the winning candidates included BJP chief Nitin Nabin and party colleague Shivesh Ram, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Ramnath Thakur from the Janata Dal (United) and Upendra Kushwaha from the Rashtriya Lok Morcha.All the winning candidates secured the required number of votes to ensure their election to the Rajya Sabha. However, a formal announcement of the results was still awaited.The Mahagathbandhan failed to secure a single seat in the polls, with Amarendra Dhari Singh, the candidate of the main Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal, losing the election.In Odisha, Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar have been elected to the Upper House as BJP nominees. Former Union minister and Independent candidate Dilip Ray, backed by the BJP, defeated Datteswar Hota, the common candidate of the BJD, Congress and CPI(M).Elections were held for 37 Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in April due to the retirement of sitting members. These seats are from Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.Of the total seats, 26 candidates have already been elected unopposed. Polling was held for the remaining 11 seats — five in Bihar, four in Odisha and two in Haryana.