Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Friday called the Election Commission a “mute spectator” while claiming that women were being given ₹10,000 each during the time of voting for the Bihar assembly elections, as the trends shared by the ECI indicated an NDA sweep in the state with a massive lead.
According to the latest EC trends, the NDA is well past the majority mark, while the Mahagathbandhan lags behind. In the NDA, the BJP is leading in 91 seats, JD(U) in 79 seats, LJP in 22 seats, while RJD is leading in 27 seats and Congress in four seats as Mahagathbandhan struggles to make a mark, EC data at 1:57 pm showed.
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Ashok Gehlot on Bihar election results
Speaking on the results, Gehlot called the election results “disappointing” and claimed that cash transfers continued to take place even during the election campaigns. He told reporters, “The assembly results are disappointing. It seems to me that the payments of ₹10,000 to women were continuing even when the election campaign was on; such a thing never happens.”
Attacking the Election Commission over “vote theft”, Gehlot called the poll body a “mute spectator”. He said, “In Bihar, the Election Commission remained a mute spectator. Why did it not stop this? It did not intervene at all.”
{{/usCountry}}Attacking the Election Commission over “vote theft”, Gehlot called the poll body a “mute spectator”. He said, “In Bihar, the Election Commission remained a mute spectator. Why did it not stop this? It did not intervene at all.”
{{/usCountry}}"When you do not ensure fair elections, when booth capturing or dishonesty takes place, and the Election Commission takes no action, that is vote theft. There was clear collusion with the ruling party," Gehlot added.
Shashi Tharoor on Bihar elections
Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has also reacted to the election results, saying that the grand old party was not the “senior partner in the alliance” and that the RJD also has to “look carefully at its own performance”.
He told reporters, “It's a question of leading at the moment. They are leading by a rather large margin. But let's wait for the Election Commission to discuss and disclose the results. I am sure that the party has a responsibility to study in detail the causes. But remember, we were not the senior partner in the alliance, and RJD also has to look carefully at its own performance.”
“But I will say that on a matter like this, it's very important that we look at the totality of our performance. Elections are about a number of factors,” he added.