Congress ‘Vote Chori’ Issue Rejected by Bihar Voters, Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ Fails To Attract Votes as Nitish Kumar-Led NDA Scripts History

With Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress alleging mass vote theft in several assembly polls as well as in last year’s Lok Sabha elections, the issue failed miserably in Bihar, where the Gandhi scion has taken out Voter Adhikar Yatra for 16 days along with the Mahagatbandhan or Grand Alliance leaders. 

Rahul Gandhi first addressed the press conference on vote theft. On August 7 and then he kicked off his Voter Adhikar Yatra on August 17 from the Sasaram district of Bihar. The yatra covered at least 25 districts and over 130 assembly seats over the issue of vote theft and the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in the state. 

However, despite covering the state for 16 days, the Congress vote theft issue did not resonate with the voters of Bihar, as people rejected the grand old party, and by the time of filing this report, the party’s performance was worse, as it was leading on only four seats. 

The Congress was reduced to four seats in the 2010 assembly polls under the leadership of Mehboob Ali Kaiser. 

Many party leaders feel that the Congress leadership was too convinced about the vote theft issue, working on the ground with the SIR removing at least 62 lakh voters. 

However, over-reliance on ‘vote chori’ allegation, the leaders feel, was a big mistake as they did not consider the other factors working in favour of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led NDA in Bihar. 

The Congress feels that the issue of voter theft and back-to-back press conferences of Rahul Gandhi highlighting the issue kept the party away from the main issues, especially how the NDA tapped into women and other voters in the state. 

Meanwhile, the Congress leaders also feel that the BJP was able to take on the grand old party and RJD by highlighting how it was trying to stand with the ‘ghuspaithiya’ (infiltrators) by opposing the SIR exercise. 

While the Mahagatbandhan also brought the ‘Tejashwi pran’, promising government jobs to one member of every family in Bihar, the NDA dealt with it immediately by promising one crore jobs as well as providing assistance for entrepreneurs. 

The Mahagatbandhan also faced the tirade of the NDA over RJD’s ‘jungleraj’ in Bihar that struck a chord with the voters. 

Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Tariq Anwar, speaking to TDG, said: “This is a huge setback and we will sit and discuss what went wrong in Bihar, as this kind of result was not expected.”

He also stated that Rs 10,000 provided to over one crore women in Bihar under Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana was also one of the reasons that such huge votes of women remained with the NDA, especially Nitish Kumar. 

He, however, dubbed this assistance of Rs 10,000 as bribery to voters ahead of the crucial polls, on which the Election Commission did not take any action, despite it violating the Model Code of Conduct. 

Some party leaders also feel that in-charge Krishna Allavaru not communicating and coordinating with the senior leaders in the party was also one of the big reasons for such a poor show in Bihar. 

Many senior leaders complained that Allavaru only met the senior leaders when he needed to and did not take their suggestions on ticket distribution. 

Even many leaders feel that Congress leadership has been relying too much on some leaders who have failed in multiple elections but are yet favoured in most of the key positions, including that of the screening committee chairperson.