Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge
Credit: Handout via PTI Photo
New Delhi: Congress top leadership on Saturday held a quick review of its rout in Bihar and decided to rope in I.N.D.I.A partners to collectively look into data and reasons for the “unbelievable” debacle, as it viewed NDA’s sweeping victory with suspicion saying that even 1984 elections after Indira Gandhi's assassination did not throw up such results.
Leader of Opposition Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary KC Venugopal and Treasurer Ajay Maken besides Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru and party Media and Publicity Department Chairman Pawan Khera drove to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence to discuss the party’s dismal outing winning just six seats and the bloc’s performance.
Sources said the senior leaders were surprised by the NDA winning 202 seats out of 243 and felt that the election was “stolen” and were not convinced with the role of the Election Commission.
Kharge and Rahul spoke to RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav as well as CPI(ML)L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Bihar outcome, with sources saying the leaders were of the view that there is “something amiss” in the results. Efforts are on to collect Form 17C, which has details of voting, from all booths for analysis.
Sources said leaders were of the view that a party winning 90% of the seats is “extremely rare” and such a situation did not exist in Bihar. They said that even during 1984, Congress did not get a 90% strike-rate.
While Congress and its Bihar partners suspect “vote chori”, a discordant note rose from NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar who dismissed suggestions of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) as having an impact on results while insisting that it was the Rs 10,000 cash transfer to women that did the trick for the NDA.
After the meeting, Venugopal told reporters, “this result was unbelievable not just Congress, but for the people of Bihar and our alliance partners too. A 90% strike rate for a party has never happened. We are doing a thorough analysis, collecting data from across Bihar. Within one or two weeks, we will come out with concrete proof.” He claimed the entire electioneering process is “questionable” and the Election Commission is “totally one-sided”.
He alleged that the “results were designed in such a way that no government could be formed if JD(U) decides to switch sides”.
Maken, who also headed the Screening Committee for Bihar, referred to Congress winning 414 Lok Sabha seats in 1984 riding on a sympathy wave after Indira Gandhi's assassination and said even his party did not have a strike rate as is the case with the BJP in these elections.
“There has been a question mark over the entire election process right from the beginning. When that is the case, results will be unexpected like this. There was never a strike rate like this...No one expected this. Something is amiss. We have spoken with our alliance partners. All of them believe that these are unexpected results and these should be examined, data should be analysed,” he said.
Maken said they presented evidence related to vote theft in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Haryana but the Election Commission did not even bat an eyelid. “We will continue to play our role in protecting democracy and will not back down from it,” he added.