Against all expectations, the NDA, led by the BJP has swept the seats of the Bihar elections. There were signs before the election that the match was fixed. The SIR exercise removed over 60 lac voters from the rolls and added over 20 lac new voters. Such a large-scale shift in the voter-list weeks before an election was suspicious. Then the government transferred 10,000 rupees to the accounts of women during the model code of conduct. The Election Commission looked the other way and thereby allowed the government to legally purchase votes.

The outcomes of these elections are also very suspicious. The RJD got 23% of the votes while the BJP and the JDU got only 20% and 19.25% votes respectively. But the RJD got only 25 seats compared to 89 for the BJP and 85 for the JDU. The BJP’s ‘hit rate’ is 89 seats out of 101 contested, almost 90%. This is unprecedented in Indian electoral history. AIMIM got only 1.85% votes while the Congress got 8.7% votes. And yet AIMIM managed 5 seats while the Congress was left with only 6. All these numbers clearly indicate a ‘surgical strike’ on the electoral process. Meanwhile, Bihar will remain neglected for another term. Its large-scale unemployment, crumbling public infrastructure, crushed farmers, and laborers forced to migrate in the search for work will suffer for another five years.

After Maharashtra and Haryana, the BJP has now refined it’s model for capturing elections in Bihar. The Election Commission has shown that it no longer can stand up to the Government and guarantee a fair election. The only way in which to recapture our democracy is a mass movement of the people.

Jai Congress. Jai Hind. Jai Jagat.