People of Bihar 'rejected' Rahul Gandhi's 'vote-theft', claims BJP's Vinod Tawde

Patna, Nov 14 (PTI) Hailing the people of Bihar for reposing their trust in the NDA alliance and steering it to an overwhelming victory, BJP's national general secretary Vinod Tawde said on Friday that the voters of the state "completely rejected" Rahul Gandhi's 'vote-theft' claims on grounds that it was "never an issue".

Addressing a press conference here, Tawde, also the party's state in-charge, maintained that voters in Bihar maintained their wits in separating "truth and reality from false claims" and never rallied behind fake promises.

"Take Rahul Gandhi's 'Vote Chori' allegation for example. If someone had prior knowledge of what the Bihar poll results would look like, it was Rahul Gandhi. That’s why he called a press conference in Delhi and set an excuse for his loss beforehand, as if to say they lost because the votes were stolen. Vote theft was not an issue in Bihar at all," Tawde said.

"The voters who were deleted from the list were either duplicate or fake voters, Bangladeshis or illegal infiltrators. The citizens of Bihar were, in fact, happy that the list was cleared of false voters," he added, referring to the SIR exercise in the state, which resulted in the deletion of over 40 lakh names from the final rolls.

Tawde said it was evident that people who have permanently migrated to other parts of the country from Bihar for work and have enrolled themselves as voters at regions where they were currently living, as well as illegal infiltrators, would be struck off the electoral roll.

"That's why people of Bihar rejected Rahul Gandhi's 'vote-theft' claims and said this wasn't an issue at all," he declared.

Tawde maintained that people voted to accelerate the speed of development in Bihar and assured them that the NDA government would enforce just that.

"Besides the faith and trust which the people of Bihar reposed in the NDA leadership, they also did not fall for the kind of promises that Lalu and Tejaswi made – Rs 7 lakh crore earmarked for a job in every family, Rs 4 lakh crore for the Jeevika Didi scheme, accounting for Rs 11 lakh crore which far exceeds Bihar's budget. The people of Bihar may be poor, but not without brains," he said.

Tawde also drew attention to the violence-free polls which Bihar witnessed this time around.

"A telling statement on Bihar's current law and order situation is the fact that not a single booth had to undergo a re-poll and not one person was killed in these elections. Some minor agitations aside, not a drop of blood was spilled during these polls. That's why people have showered their blessings on us through their votes," he claimed. PTI SMY RG