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Mahagathbandhan likely to move court against Bihar poll verdict
The alliance partners are likely to seek key poll records from the Election Commission before taking a call on moving the courts
The opposition Mahagathbandhan (MGB) in Bihar is weighing to challenge the results of the recently concluded Bihar assembly polls and as a first step, the alliance partners are likely to seek key poll records from the Election Commission before taking a call on moving the courts, functionaries said.
The MGB — comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, and smaller allies, including Left parties — faced a crushing defeat in the Bihar polls, results of which were declared on November 14, winning only 35 of the 243 seats in the state. The ruling NDA swept the polls, held in two phases on November 6 and 11, winning 202 seats.
Congress general secretary Avinash Pande, who was also a party observer in Bihar, said: “We are also going deep into the process. We are going to demand all records for Bihar, as we did in Maharashtra and Haryana.”
A senior Congress leader added that the party will consult other allies on whether to challenge the election process and results in the court.
According to law, the political parties/leaders can file an election petition in the state’s high court within 45 days from the declaration of results.
The RJD leadership is consulting top Supreme Court lawyers to weigh the legal options to challenge the election process, a senior functionary said. The RJD had discussed the matter during the recent meeting chaired by party chief Lalu Prasad and leader Tejaswi Prasad Yadav with newly elected members in Patna on Monday.
“A decision on moving court would be taken soon. Perhaps within one week. There have been gross anomalies in the election process which have influenced the election results, as per our understanding. This is why we are seriously contemplating moving court. Consultations with top lawyers including from the Supreme Court and experts in election laws are going on,” RJD spokesperson Chittaranjan Gagan said.
Another MGB ally, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, or CPI(ML), said they will also seek poll records from EC.
Form 17C, the statutory ‘account of votes recorded’ under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, is filled at every polling station after voting ends and during counting. Part I records the number of electors, the number of voters who turned out and the entries made in the register of voters, while Part II contains the candidate-wise tally from that booth. Copies of Form 17C are given to polling agents of the parties.
In the Bihar polls, an unprecedented 65.08% and 69.20% voting was recorded in first and second phase polling, respectively.
Top MGB leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress, had blamed EC and alleged vote theft for the opposition grouping’s drubbing in the polls. Targeting the poll body, RJD leader Gagan alleged that the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government was allowed to disburse ₹10,000 as monetary assistance to millions of women under the Mahila Rojgar Yojana during the polls while special trains were run to facilitate electors enrolled in Bihar to come home.
“We feel there have been a lot anomalies in the election process. Party’s senior leader Shakti Singh Yadav and newly elected MLA Bhai Virendra have said that the results did not reflect the feedback the party received from the ground during the election,” the spokesperson said.
Access to Form 17C and CCTV and webcasting footage records from polling stations, strong rooms and counting centres has become a recurring point of conflict. Parties and petitioners have sought booth-wise records and video material to check the polling environment and the movement and storage of EVMs, while EC has maintained that these records are not meant for general public inspection and can be shared only with authorised persons or courts.
The dispute widened after the government amended Rule 93(2) of the Conduct of Election Rules last year to limit public inspection to only those records explicitly mentioned in the rules. The change removed electronic records such as CCTV and webcasting footage from the category of inspectable material and narrowed the scope for independent access sought by petitioners and political groups.
The controversy sharpened when chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar responded to demands for release of CCTV footage by asking whether the commission should circulate recordings showing “mothers, sisters, daughters” without consent, framing the issue as one involving privacy and possible misuse.
The MGB might ask for CCTV footage and Form 17C data from EC on the last-minute surge in polling in both phases, functionaries said.
