Patna/New Delhi: With the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) set to sweep the Bihar Assembly elections, reactions and counter-reactions have started flowing thick and fast.
Slamming Congess MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for the Mahagathbandhan’s dismal performance BJP leader Amit Malviya said: “Rahul Gandhi! Another election, another defeat! If there were awards for electoral consistency (of losing polls), he’d sweep them all. At this rate, even setbacks must be wondering how he finds them so reliably”.
Party MP Sudhanshu Trivedi cited a Kabir couplet to mock the Congress and urged the party to verify voter lists to confirm the accuracy of the results.
“After crossing 150 and 175 seats, we’re now moving towards 200…I would like to quote a line of Kabir Das for Congress, they should understand that “Bura jo dekhan main chala, bura na milya koi. Jo mann khoja apna, to mujhse bura na koi (When I went looking for evil, I found none. But when I searched within my own heart, I found no one worse than me),” he said.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan is in a shambles with former deputy chief minister and RJD scion Tejashwi Yadav trailing by nearly 8,000 votes in the Raghopur constituency after the 15th round of counting. The leads for the Mahagathbandhan have fallen to below 30.
Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya asserted that the counting trends vindicate the BJP’s position.
“The trends from the vote counting clearly show that the stance of Bihar’s people is clear: no jungle raj, no kattaraj, no gundaraj, no appeasement, no nepotism, no scams, no corruption, no arrogance, and no casteism. Bihar accepts only good governance, development, and transparent leadership,” he said, adding, “The RJD-Congress and Company model is nothing but deception”.
The BJP’s national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari also took a jab at the Congress leader, saying: “Rahul Gandhi is No. 1 – undisputed, unchallenged, and unbeaten. Ninety-five elections lost and counting. It’s no coincidence that this happens on Jawaharlal Nehru ji’s birthday”.
The Congress has reacted by alleging that the Election Commission of India played a partisan role. According to party leader Pawan Khera, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar seems to be acting against the will of the people of Bihar.
“As I said, the initial trends themselves show that Gyanesh Kumar appears to be going against the people of Bihar. This fight is not merely between the BJP, Congress, RJD, and JDU, it is a direct confrontation between Gyanesh Kumar and the people of India,” he claimed.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also got into the fray and claimed that the election was rigged, citing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls conducted just ahead of the polls.
“I had earlier said that this election has been hijacked and this election holds no meaning; that Gyanesh Kumar has already given the winning certificate to Modi ji for victory in Bihar. What will be the results in a state where 80 lakh votes were deleted, where 5 lakh votes are duplicates, and where 1 lakh votes are unknown?” AAP MP Sanjay Singh asked.
“We should congratulate NDA, Modi ji and Gyanesh Kumar that they have won the Bihar elections with the blessings of Gyanesh Kumar.”
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also termed the BJP’s massive lead an “electoral conspiracy” and accused the administration of manipulating the process. “BJP is not a party, it is deceit,” he said.
“The game that SIR played in Bihar will no longer be possible in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, UP, and other places now because this electoral conspiracy has been exposed. From now on, we will not let them play this game. Like CCTV, our ‘PPTV’ meaning ‘PDA Sentinel’ will stay vigilant and thwart the BJP’s intentions,” the former UP chief minister said.