BJP trashes Cong's SIR claims, says people punished Mahagathbandhan for defaming country

New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) The BJP on Saturday slammed the Congress for blaming the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls for the Mahagathbandhan's crushing defeat in Bihar, and said people "punished" the opposition alliance for defaming the country and creating divisions in society on the lines of castes and religion.

After the NDA cruised to a landslide victory in the Bihar polls, winning 202 seats in the 243-member Assembly, the Congress on Friday alleged “vote chori on a gigantic scale”, with Rahul Gandhi saying “we could not achieve victory in an election that was not fair from the very beginning”.

Gandhi also said the Congress and the INDIA bloc will conduct an in-depth review of the poll results and make more effective efforts to “save democracy”.

Reacting to the remarks, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said that by giving a clear mandate to the NDA, people of Bihar have made it clear that they want livelihood, prosperity and development, not the opposition's “Jungal Raj, mafia and politics of Muslim League and Naxalies”.

“People have punished you for your anti-national misdeeds. People have punished you for speaking against the country, defaming the country, and dividing the country on communal and caste lines,” Chugh told PTI Videos, when asked about the attacks on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise for the opposition's poll debacle in Bihar.

“Bihar's mandate is a punishment for the INDI alliance,” he added.

The BJP leader also said that with their “massive” mandate to the NDA, people have sent out a message that they have unwavering trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government's “policy and intent”.

The two main constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the BJP and the JD-U, recorded a nearly 85 per cent strike rate in the 101 seats they contested each in Bihar.

While the BJP won 89 seats, up from its 2020 tally of 74, Nitish Kumar's JD-U bagged 85, nearly doubling its previous tally of 43.

The seat tally of Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD fell steeply to 25 from 75 in 2020, while the Congress managed just six seats out of the 61 it contested, down from 19 in 2020. PTI PK ARI