In the Bihar Assembly elections, the Congress only managed to win 19 seats, a drop from its tally of 27 seats in 2015. While it improved its vote share from 6.66% in 2015 to nearly 9.5% in this election, its strike rate this time was much less.
The Congress is now being blamed for dragging down the Grand Alliance, and some reports have speculated that JD(U) may regret giving 70 seats in the Grand Alliance to the Grand Old Party (see here and here). In 2015, the Congress had contested in 41 seats.
When the Congress was allotted 70 seats last month to contest as part of the Grand Alliance, a section of the party was apprehensive about the deal and thought it was a bad bargain, according to The Indian Express.
Of the 70 seats, the Congress has not won 45 in the past two decades, the report noted. Even its ally RJD had not won 18 of the allotted 70 seats in last 20 years. The Hindu quoted an unnamed senior leader as saying that the party had “contested” seats where the NDA had a 95% strike rate.
Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala, who was also the chairman of the party’s election management committee for Bihar, had appeared confident before the results that the party would win 45-50 seats. He also rejected claims that Congress was given more seats than its capacity to contest as “hogwash” in an interview with The Hindu last week.
As the results for the Bihar Assembly elections started pouring in and leads became more definite on Tuesday, Congress leaders responded by alleging that their candidates were not given certificates of victory despite winning and blaming the EVMs.
In a late-night tweet, Surjewala said that “democracy is being murdered and mandate being abducted in Bihar”. He said that the party’s candidate in Kishanganj had won, but was denied the certificate.
Both RJD and Congress raised questions over EVMs. Congress’s Udit Raj claimed that the electronic voting machines can be hacked and tampered with. He took to Twitter to say, “If devices being sent to Mars and the Moon can be controlled from Earth, then can EVMs not be hacked?”
The Election Commission rubbished all allegations in a press conference on Tuesday, saying that there is no doubt about the integrity of EVMs.
Some Congress allies have also expressed their displeasure, say news reports. Its ally in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena, accused the Congress of being the “weak link” and dragging down the RJD, according to PTI.
Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(ML) General Secretary, told Times Now that Congress has a position because of its history but they need to justify their position with current actions. CPI(ML) won 12 seats out of the 19 seats that were allotted to it in the Grand Alliance, making it the party with the best strike rate in these elections.
(With PTI inputs)