The Congress Party on Thursday held a brainstorming session to discuss the Bihar poll debacle. The review meeting was attended by party’s top brass, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and K C Venugopal. The candidates presented their views and highlighted several issues which were behind Congress’ poor performance in recently-concluded Bihar polls.
Several contestants said the state government’s Rs 10,000 bonanza for women, delay in Mahagathbandhan seat sharing, internal rift and "electoral malpractices" were among the key reasons for the poll debacle.
Senior leaders participate in review meeting
The three senior leaders of the Congress Party met the candidates in groups of 10 to review the poll outcome. They later held detailed discussions with key state leaders on the factors behind the heavy electoral setback. Those present included Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram, AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, MPs Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Tariq Anwar, as well as Purnia’s Independent MP Pappu Yadav.
Amid the discussions, reports surfaced of a confrontation between two candidates during the review session.
Sharing the details of the meeting KC Venugopal said the candidates flagged several issues, including electoral malpractice, violations of the Model Code of Conduct and deletion of names in SIR as reasons for the party’s poor performance.
"They highlighted how SIR (Special Intensive Revision) enabled targeted voter deletions and dubious additions, how blatant cash bribery under the so-called MMRY (Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana) scheme was used to influence voters even at the polling stations and how identical margins across constituencies exposed a pattern that no independent election commission would ever overlook," Venugopal said on X.
"These issues point to organised electoral malpractices and brazen violations of the Model Code of Conduct, carried out under the watch of an ECI that has increasingly behaved like an active collaborator in BJP's election rigging," he said.
Bihar result a stolen mandate, says Venugopal
Calling Bihar poll outcome a stolen mandate, Venugopal said the democracy was ‘assaulted’.
"The Congress Party will not allow this stolen mandate to become the new normal. The fight to protect India's democracy continues -- fearlessly, relentlessly, and with the people by our side," he added.
Notably, the Congress managed to amass only six of the 61 seats it contested in the Bihar Assembly elections.
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