With Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress alleging mass vote theft in several assembly polls as well as in last year Lok Sabha elections
With Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi
With Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress alleging mass vote theft in several assembly polls as well as in last year Lok Sabha elections, the issue failed miserably in Bihar where the Gandhi scion has taken out Voter Adhikar Yatra for 16 says along with the Mahagatbandhan or Grand Alliance leaders.
Rahul Gandhi first addressed a press.conference on vote theft.on August 7 and then he kicked off his Voter Adhikar Yatra on August 17 from Sasaram district of Bihar. The yatra covered at least 25 districts and over 130 assembly seats over the issue of vote theft and the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter list in the state.
However, despite covering the state for 16 days, Congress vote theft issue did not resonate with the voters of Bihar as people rejected the grand old party and by time of filing this report the party's performance was worst as it was leading on only four seats.
The Congress was reduced to four seats in 2010 assembly polls under under the leadership of Mehboob Ali Kaiser.
Many party leaders feel that the Congress leadership was too much convinced about the vote theft issue working on ground with the SIR removing at least 62 lakh voters.
However, over reliance on 'vote chori' allegation, the leaders feel was a big mistake as they did not consider the other factors working in favour of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led NDA in Bihar.
The Congress feels that the issue of voter theft and back to back press conferences of Rahul Gandhi highlighting the issue, kept the party away from the main issues especially how the NDA tapped on women and other voters in the state.
Meanwhile, the Congress leaders also feel that the BJP was able to take on the grand old party and RJD by highlighting that how it was trying to stand with the 'ghuspaithiya' (infiltrators) by opposing the SIR exercise.
While the Mahagatbandhan also brought the 'Tejashwi pran' promising government jobs to one member of every family in Bihar, the NDA delat it immediately by promising one crore jobs as well as providing assistance for entrepreneurs.
The Mahagatbandhan also faced the tirade of the NDA over RJD's 'jungleraj' in Bihar that struck a chord with the voters.
Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Tariq Anwar speaking to TDG said: "This is a huge setback and we will sit and discuss what went wrong in Bihar, as this kind of result was not expected."
He also stated that Rs 10,000 provided to over one crore women in Bihar unde Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana was also one of the reason that such huge votes of women remained with the NDA especially Nitish Kumar.
He, however, dubbed this assistance of Rs 10,000 as bribery to voters ahead of the crucial polls, on which the Election Commission did not take any action despite it was in violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
Some party leaders also feel that incharge Krishna Allavaru not communicating and coordinating with the senior leaders in the party was also one of the big reason for such a poor show in Bihar.
Many senior leaders complained that Allavaru only met the senior leaders when he needed and did not take their suggestions over ticket distribution.
Even many leaders feel that Congress leadership had even relying too much on some leaders who have failed in multiple elections but are yet favoured in most of the key positions including that of the screening committee chairperson.
