Former Poll Strategist Raises Questions Over Bihar Election Verdict
Prashant Kishor, the founder of Jan Suraaj and former election strategist, has made serious allegations about the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections, claiming that something appears fundamentally wrong with the outcome. Despite his party failing to win any of the 238 seats it contested, Kishor insists the voting patterns don't match the ground feedback his team received during the campaign.
Statistical Anomalies and Suspicious Numbers
In an exclusive interview with India Today on Sunday, Kishor pointed to specific voting figures that he finds particularly suspicious. Eight BJP MLAs received more than 1 lakh votes each, with both Deputy Chief Ministers securing nearly identical tallies - Samrat Choudhary winning 1,22,480 votes and Vijay Kumar Sinha getting 1,22,408 votes.
Kishor emphasized the statistical improbability of these numbers, stating, "Something is not adding up. We can see something wrong has happened, but what exactly is wrong, we don't know. But this is not adding up."
The Election Commission of India data reveals the extent of Jan Suraaj's electoral disaster - 236 of their 238 candidates lost their security deposits, indicating they failed to secure even one-sixth of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.
Broader Concerns About Election Process
Kishor raised multiple concerns about the entire electoral process, suggesting that opposition parties need to seriously examine what he calls systematic issues. He highlighted several procedural red flags, including delayed release of Form 17C data for three days and what he described as unexplained 10-15% extra polling in the final hours of voting.
"From the time of making electoral rolls to implementation of Model Code of Conduct, voting process, percentage and the fact that in the last hour apparently recording 10-15 per cent extra poll... all these things require very serious thinking about whether one can expect a fair result in such an election," Kishor elaborated during his interview.
Cash Distribution Allegations
In perhaps his most serious allegation, Kishor accused the ruling NDA alliance of systematic cash distribution to women voters across Bihar. He claimed that from the day elections were announced until voting day, women were handed ten thousand rupees each with promises of additional payments if they voted for the NDA.
"They were told they would receive two lakh rupees in total, and this ten thousand was just the first installment. If they went and voted for the NDA, for Nitish Kumar, they would get the rest," Kishor alleged, adding that he couldn't recall any government ever distributing money on such a scale to approximately 50,000 women.
Political Fallout and Organizational Changes
The election results saw the National Democratic Alliance secure a landslide victory with 202 of the 243 seats, with BJP emerging as the single largest party with 89 seats and JD(U) winning 85 seats. The Congress party, part of the opposition INDIA bloc, managed to win only 6 of the 61 seats it contested.
Following their disastrous performance, Jan Suraaj has dissolved all its organizational units from panchayat to state level. The decision was taken at the party's national council meeting in Patna, chaired by state president Manoj Bharti, with Kishor in attendance. Party spokesperson Syed Masih Uddin announced that new units will be formed within the next one and a half months.
Kishor's concerns find some echo in comments from Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who described the Bihar verdict as "surprising" and alleged that "the contest was not fair from the very beginning." However, Kishor acknowledges that while he strongly suspects irregularities, he currently lacks concrete proof to substantiate his claims.
