‘ECI one-sided, poll process suspicious, something is certainly wrong’: Congress on Bihar results

After being nearly wiped out in Bihar in the just-concluded Assembly Election, the Congress party on Saturday reviewed its performance and put the blame on the Election Commission for the drubbing.

Recording one of its worst-ever performances in Bihar, bagging just six seats in the 243-member Legislative Assembly, the Congress alleged “large-scale vote theft” and a “one-sided” election process contributed to the downfall of the Opposition.

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Under the Mahagathbandhan alliance, spearheaded by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress contested on 61 seats and won six – a strike rate of just 10 per cent. This is one of the Congress’s worst-ever tallies in the state and leaves the once-dominant party on the periphery of Bihar’s political landscape.

Voters ignore ‘Vote Chori’

Its leader, Rahul Gandhi’s political campaign, which focused on ‘vote chori’ allegations, failed to resonate with the voters of Bihar, and not just led to the downfall of the party but also dragged its main alliance partner, the RJD, led by Tejashwi Yadav, Mahagathbandhan’s CM face. The national party’s performance has also revived dissent within the alliance and raised questions over its election management and strategy.

Also Read: ‘Vote Chori’ didn’t resonate with voters, Congress nearly wiped out from Bihar

With doubts now cast over its relevance in Bihar politics, the Congress today held an emergency meeting to deliberate on the Bihar results. The meeting was held at party national president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence, and was attended by top leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, and treasurer Ajay Maken.

Speaking to reporters after the review meeting, party leaders focused little on internal failures and talked more about alleged serious misconduct on the part of the poll panel.

‘Unexpected results, probe must’

“Votes are being stolen. The Congress will conduct an in-depth review of the polling figures and then explain to the media the reasons for the defeat in Bihar. Within one to two weeks, we will present concrete evidence. The Election Commission is completely one-sided. This entire process is suspicious,” Venugopal said.

Ajay Maken raised questions on the unprecedented mandate for the NDA and asked: “There have been question marks over the entire election process from the very beginning… Such a strike rate has never been seen before — not even in 1984, when the Congress had its best performance. No one anticipated this. Something is certainly wrong.”

Maken further said the Mahagathbandhan partners view the results as “unexpected” and want them to be “investigated”. He further informed that their teams are compiling data from the ground to substantiate claims of irregularities, as reported by party workers in Bihar.