Bihar Polls A Direct Contest Between ECI And People Of State: Congress Leader Pawan Khera

New Delhi: Amid early trends indicating a clean sweep for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar, the Congress, which has been accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of favouring the ruling dispensation, on Friday, asserted that the contest in the Assembly elections was directly between the poll panel and people of the state.

Reacting to early trends, signalling that the NDA would retain power in Bihar, senior Congress leader Pawan Khera, while talking to reporters here, said, "The contest is directly between the Election Commission of India and the people of Bihar. Let's see who wins."

Without mincing words, he said, "I am talking about the direct contest between (Chief Election Commissioner) Gyanesh Kumar and the people of Bihar. I cannot underestimate the people of Bihar. They have shown immense courage, despite the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and 'Vote Chori (vote theft)'. Let's see how effective Gyanesh Kumar proves to be in the hours ahead."

Khera, who is also the Chairman of the Congress's Media and Publicity Department, said, "These are only early trends. It seems that Gyanesh Kumar is currently outweighing the people of Bihar. We are waiting to see whether, in the coming hours, the people of Bihar will outweigh Kumar, or Kumar will outweigh the people of Bihar.”

In response to a question on the party's future course of action, the senior Congress leader said, "We will discuss this later."

Prior to the Assembly elections, the opposition alliance "Mahagathbandhan", led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress, had carried out a "Voter Adhikar Yatra" across the state, accusing the ECI of "vote theft" in the SIR to favour the ruling dispensation.

The poll panel had refuted the allegations of the Opposition parties. Notably, there were zero appeals in the Bihar SIR.

According to early trends on the ECI website, the BJP is leading in 84 Assembly seats, the JD(U) in 77, the RJD in 35 and the Congress in five seats.

In the 2020 Assembly Bihar elections, the BJP and the JD(U)-led NDA had secured 125 seats, while the RJD and the Congress-led Mahagathbandhan won 110 seats, with eight seats won by other parties. The RJD was the single largest party by winning 75 seats, followed by the BJP with 74, and the JD(U) with 43.

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