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Patna: RJD spokesperson Ejaz Ahmed has accused the Election Commission of India （ECI） of influencing the outcome of the Bihar Assembly elections by rejecting a large number of postal ballots in several closely contested seats. He claimed that at least three Grand Alliance candidates lost by narrow margins due to the cancellation of postal votes. In Nabinagar Assembly constituency in Saharsa district, JDU candidate Chetan Anand defeated RJD’s Amod Kumar Singh by just 112 votes, while 132 postal ballots were rejected by the ECI, Ahmed said. Similarly, in the Agiaon Assembly constituency in Bhojpur district, CPI-ML candidate Shiv Prakash Ranjan lost to BJP candidate Mahesh Paswan by a margin of 95 votes, whereas 175 postal ballots were cancelled. The closest contest, according to Ahmed, was in Sandesh Assembly constituency, also in Bhojpur district, where RJD’s Dipu Singh lost to JDU’s Radha Charan Sah by a mere 27 votes. In this seat, 360 postal ballots were rejected by the Election Commission of India. Ahmed alleged that the pattern of postal ballot cancellations indicates that the Election Commission played a role in defeating opposition candidates, calling the matter a publicly visible game. The Election Commission has not responded to these allegations so far. The Bihar Assembly election results, declared on 14 November, saw the opposition alliance win only 35 seats—with RJD securing 25, Congress 6, CPI-ML 2, IIP 1, and CPI 1. Meanwhile, the NDA registered a sweeping victory by winning 202 seats out of a total of 243 seats of the Bihar Assembly. Among them, the BJP won 89 seats and emerged as the single largest party in this election, followed by JDU 85 seats, LJPRV 19, HAM 5, and RLM 4. The swearing-in ceremony was held in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on Thursday, where Nitish Kumar took the oath for the 10th time as the Chief Minister of Bihar. IANS |
