Rahul Gandhi claims the Bihar polls were unfair from the start
The Chronify
After the devastating defeat in the Bihar elections, India’s main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has expressed disbelief over the results. Although he did not directly allege vote tampering, he questioned the fairness of the election.
On Friday night (14 November), after the election results were announced, Rahul Gandhi wrote on social media platform X:
"I express my heartfelt gratitude to the millions of voters in Bihar who voted for the candidates of the Mahagathbandhan alliance. The result in Bihar is truly astonishing. We could not win an election that was not fair from the very beginning."
He further stated:
"Our struggle is a fight to protect the Constitution and democracy. The Congress and the India Alliance will deeply review the results of this election and work even harder to strengthen the fight for democracy."
Bihar, a neighboring state of West Bengal, has a total of 243 assembly seats. Voting in the elections was held in two phases. On 6 November, the first phase took place in 121 seats, with more than 65% voter turnout.
The second phase was held on 11 November in 122 seats, with over 68% turnout. Across both phases, the overall turnout was around 67%.
The main contest in this election was between the NDA alliance led by BJP-Janata Dal (United) and the Mahagathbandhan alliance led by Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). On Friday night, after the results were announced, the NDA alliance won in 202 out of 243 assembly seats, while the opposition Mahagathbandhan secured 35 seats.
Among the NDA partners, BJP won 89 seats. The second largest ally, JD(U) led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, won 85 seats. Additionally, Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party won 19 seats, and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party, the Hindustani Awam Morcha, won 5 seats.
Among the Mahagathbandhan partners, RJD performed worse than Congress. In the 2020 elections, RJD contested 144 seats and won 75. This time, contesting 143 seats, it managed to win only 25.
