BSP would win more seats if Bihar elections were free and fair: Mayawati

Lucknow, Nov 16 (PTI) BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday claimed that her party would have won many more seats in the Bihar assembly elections if the polls had been completely free and fair.

In a post on X, she congratulated Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) members for ensuring the victory of party candidate Satish Kumar Singh Yadav in the Ramgarh assembly seat (No. 203) in Bihar's Kaimur district.

Although the administration and all opposition parties united in their efforts to defeat the BSP candidate under the pretext of recounting the votes, the courageous party workers' unwavering determination throughout the elections thwarted this conspiracy, the former chief minister claimed.

"Not only this, despite giving tough competition to the opposition in other seats in this region of Bihar, BSP candidates failed to win. According to feedback, if the elections had been completely free and fair, the BSP would have certainly won many more seats. However, this did not happen," Mayawati said.

"This should not cause any panic among party members, but rather, it requires them to continue working with even greater preparation," she said.

In BSP's lone win, Satish Kumar Singh Yadav got 72,689 votes, defeating his nearest rival, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashok Kumar Singh, by a margin of merely 30 votes.

Mayawati's allegations come days after the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) decimated the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar to retain power.

The two main constituents of the NDA, the BJP and Janata Dal (United), 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 Mahagathbandhan managed to win only 34 seats. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) seat tally slipped to 25, from 75 in the 2020 elections, while the Congress won only six out of the 61 seats it contested, down from 19. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation bagged two seats, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) one.

The opposition on Friday alleged that the election results in Bihar reflect "vote chori on a gigantic scale" with Rahul Gandhi vowing an in-depth review of the outcome and saying "We could not achieve victory in such an election that was not fair from the very beginning". PTI NAV ANM ANM