Relatives and friends gathered outside a community centre in Hong Kong on Friday, hoping for news of loved ones as emergency workers searched for any survivors and more victims. Reportedly, 128 people have died in the blaze that engulfed the Wang Fuk Court complex
Bihar election ‘was not fair from the beginning’, says Rahul Gandhi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that the Bihar Assembly election “was not fair from the very beginning”.
The remark by Gandhi on social media came hours after the Opposition bloc lost the polls to the ruling National Democratic Alliance.
The Mahagathbandhan won 35 of the 243 seats. Of these, 25 were won by the Congress' ally Rashtriya Janata Dal. The Congress won six of the 61 seats it contested, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation clinched two.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won 89 seats and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) won 85, almost doubling its tally from the 2020 polls. Their ally Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) won 19.
A party or an alliance needs 122 seats in the 243-member Assembly to form the government.
The Congress had won 19 seats in the 2020 polls.
Also read: Five reasons why Biharis are not done with Nitish Kumar yet
Read Scroll's ground reports from Bihar here.
On Friday evening, Gandhi thanked voters “who expressed their trust” in the Opposition Mahagathbandhan bloc, but said that the result was “truly surprising”.
“We could not achieve victory in an election that was not fair from the very beginning,” he said.
“This fight is for the protection of the Constitution and democracy,” Gandhi said. “The Congress party and the INDIA alliance will deeply review this result and make their efforts to save democracy even more effective.”
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Friday night that “without doubt the election results in Bihar reflect vote chori [theft] on a gigantic scale”, alleging that it was masterminded by the prime minister, Union home minister and the Election Commission.
Gandhi and the Congress have repeatedly accused the Election Commission of large-scale vote rigging, including in the Maharashtra Assembly polls held in November 2024, alleging what they called “industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of national institutions.” The Election Commission has rejected those allegations as well.
On November 5, a day before the first phase of polling in Bihar took place, Gandhi alleged at a press conference that there was large-scale rigging in the 2024 Haryana polls. He claimed that about 25 lakh fake voters were added to the electoral rolls of the state ahead of the polls held in October 2024.
Gandhi had said that the system of “vote theft” had been “industrialised” and claimed that similar manipulation would take place in the state.
He also accused the Election Commission of helping the BJP by not removing duplicate voters and covering up evidence by “destroying CCTV footage”.
Follow Scroll's coverage of the Bihar Assembly election here.
Source: Scroll
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Relatives and friends gathered outside a community centre in Hong Kong on Friday, hoping for news of loved ones as emergency workers searched for any survivors and more victims. Reportedly, 128 people have died in the blaze that engulfed the Wang Fuk Court complex
3 months ago
