Bihar poll result similar to ‘Maharashtra pattern’, says Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Friday said the Bihar assembly election result where the BJP has emerged as the biggest single party, is “not surprising at all and is along the familiar pattern” witnessed in the 2024 Maharashtra polls.

“There is no need to be shocked by the results of the Bihar assembly elections. Looking at the national work that the Election Commission and the BJP are doing hand in hand, it was not possible for any different result to emerge other than this! Absolutely Maharashtra pattern! The Mahagathbandhan alliance which was sure to come to power in Bihar was restricted within 50 seats!” he said on X.

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Raut drew parallels between Bihar and Maharashtra state elections showing how the BJP-led NDA parties won by around 86 seats more than the major regional parties like the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Congress.

“We (opposition) must accept that we have been defeated, but the misuse of power by the BJP is the most important thing. The second thing is that the delay in announcing Tejashwi Yadav as the face of the Chief Minister’s post became an important issue. The seat sharing between Congress and Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD was going on till the last day of filing of applications.

“Tejashwi Yadav should have been announced as the face of the Bihar Chief Minister’s post during Rahul Gandhi’s rally against vote theft. We must accept that somewhere or the other Congress and RJD fell short in this election,” senior Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Ambadas Danve stated.

“The arithmetic of Bihar is different from that of Maharashtra. We want a Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra. However, if seat sharing goes on till the last day, then it will seriously affect the result. In the 2024 Maharashtra assembly election, if Uddhav Thackeray would have been declared the Chief Ministerial face and if seat sharing had been done earlier, then the picture in Maharashtra would have been different.

“The same mistake which happened in Maharashtra happened in Bihar as well. The Congress should change this attitude now,” Uddhav Thackerey-led Shiv Sena leader Ambadas Danve said.

Reacting to the Bihar assembly election result, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Sushma Andhare said, “The Bihar election result is not the downfall of the Congress or the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) but the downfall of parliamentary democracy itself. If autonomous bodies like the Election Commission of India act as the pawns of the ruling party, there cannot be any other result than what has been witnessed in the Bihar assembly election.

“So, there is no need to be shocked by the Bihar assembly election result. Looking at the way that the Election Commission and the BJP have been functioning hand in glove, it was not possible for any different result”.

Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Rohit Pawar tweeted on his X account on Friday that, “The Bihar assembly election result means that democracy, reservation and the constitution are in danger.

“The people’s mandate was with the INDIA block during the assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra. This picture was also clear in the postal voting. However, during the first hour of EVM voting, the trend remained exactly the same as that of postal voting results.

“But in the next hour and a half, the entire picture changed. The BJP surprisingly moved ahead and the shocking results came out. Today, the same pattern has been seen in the Bihar assembly election results,” Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Rohit Pawar said.

“The results have confirmed that there is a mess in the vote counting. The government’s broken system and the Election Commission, have definitely put democracy and, consequently, reservation and the Constitution in danger! Just as the journey of forming the government in Maharashtra took place via Guwahati via Surat, the journey of the Election Commission to announce the Bihar election results appears to be from Haryana to Bihar via Maharashtra. Anyway, this election is directly between the people of Bihar and the Election Commission of India,” Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Rohit Pawar said.

“Going by the huge crowds at Tejaswi Yadav’s meetings and the questions he raised about the youth and farmers, no matter what the results are today, there is no doubt that Tejashwi Yadav is the real choice of the people of Bihar and the Chief Minister in the minds of the people,” Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Rohit Pawar said.