After their Bihar poll debacle, senior Congress leaders met party chief Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi and later called the results “questionable,” accusing the Election Commission of being biased. KC Venugopal and Ajay Maken said the Bihar election result was “unbelievable” and they will come back with “concrete proof” after collecting data and analyzing it.
Congress failed to secure double digits despite contesting on 61 seats. In the 2020 Bihar elections, the Congress party won 19 out of the 70 seats it contested.
Addressing the reporters outside Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence, KC Venugopal said, “The result which has come from Bihar is unbelievable for all of us… Our alliance parties do not believe it… We are collecting data and conducting a thorough analysis, and within one to two weeks, we will provide concrete proof. The Election Commission is totally one-sided. This process is questionable.”
Ajay Maken also questioned the strike rate of BJP and said, “something is amiss.” The Congress leader said the party has also spoken with their Mahagathbandhan partners about the results.
Ajay Maken said, “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. Even Congress didn’t have a strike rate like this in 1984, as is the case with the BJP in these elections. 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 analyzed. We have been getting phone calls from workers across Bihar that there have been discrepancies and it should be investigated. Our people are collecting the data, we will see Form 17 C, voters list and then come to you with facts and data.”
Earlier on Friday, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Bihar Assembly election was “unfair from the beginning”. Gandhi said that the party will review its performance after the election and assured that Congress will continue to “fight for the protection of the Constitution and democracy.”
