NRI businessman elected to India’s Upper House

Prominent non-resident Indian entrepreneur PV Abdul Wahab was among the three members elected to Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of parliament, from Kerala on Monday.
Wahab, a leader of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the key ally of the southern state’s ruling Congress party, runs several businesses in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and India.
Other MPs-elect are former diaspora minister Vayalar Ravi (Congress party) and KK Ragesh of the opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
Wahab was a member of the upper house for two consecutive terms earlier--from 2004 to 2010.
He was also one of the founder directors of the Kairali TV, a propaganda channel promoted by the CPI-M, which he resigned after his elevation to the upper House.
Ravi and Ragesh got 37 votes each while Wahab cornered 36 votes. Kerala Legislative Assembly, which elects MPs to the Rajya Sabha biennially, has 140 members.
One of the members, former minister and popular actor KB Ganesh Kumar, crossed over to the Opposition protesting denial of a berth in the cabinet headed by Congress party leader Oommen Chandy, who was the first to vote.