The Election Commission has denied the allegations of Bihar’s Opposition alliance that their candidates were not being given winning certificates due to pressure from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his government.
“We are not under any pressure… Results have been declared only on 146 seats,” the Election Commission told the media regarding the RJD’s claim that it has “won” 119 seats.
On Tuesday evening, RJD leader Manoj Jha met the EC officials, claiming that he did not “trust the administration”. Addressing journalists, Jha said that he wants to urge Chief Minister Nitish Kumar not to disrespect the people’s mandate. “The Mahagathbandhan will emerge victorious. The people of Bihar won’t tolerate such actions. I request the outgoing CM not to call up returning officers and put pressure on them,” he said.
“In almost 10 seats, the Nitish administration is delaying the count, not giving certificates to the winning candidates. Sitting in CM’s house, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi are pressurising the Principal Secretary to call all DMs (district Magistrates)and ROs (Returning Officers) to get a decision in favor of the nearest contested seats,” the RJD had initially said in a Hindi tweet.
In a second tweet, the party said, “This is a list of 119 seats where the Grand Alliance candidates have won after the completion of counting. The Returning Officer congratulated him for the victory, but now he is not giving the certificate saying that you have lost. They were also shown winning on the ECI website. Such loot will not work in a democracy.”
Chitranjan Gagan, state spokesperson of the RJD, also alleged that CM Nitish Kumar was misusing his power to affect the electoral process in more than a dozen constituencies. Hence, his party is going to file complaints before the Election Commission of India.
“On around 12 to 13 seats, our candidates have won the election by narrow margins of 100 to 200 votes. The CM has influenced and applied pressure on the returning officers of the respective districts for recounting and influenced the result wrongfully in favour of NDA candidates,” alleged Gagan.
But the ruling JD-U has refuted all such allegations, calling them a sign of frustration. Sanjay Singh, spokesperson of JD-U, said: “The people of Bihar have defeated the Mahagathbandhan and now its leaders are levelling false allegations against us. The NDA has contested these elections with Nitish Kumar as the CM face and he will remain the Chief Minister of Bihar.”