Delhi: The Congress leadership on Thursday held an intense internal review after its poor performance in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections, where the party won just six of the 61 seats it contested. The closed-door brainstorming session, attended by top leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and K.C. Venugopal, focused on identifying organisational lapses, strategic errors, and alleged irregularities during the election process.
Candidates who contested the polls were called in groups of ten to present their assessments. Several pointed to the state government’s ₹10,000 scheme for women, delays in finalising Mahagathbandhan seat-sharing, internal factionalism and what they termed as widespread electoral malpractices as key factors behind the setback.
State leaders including Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram, AICC in-charge Krishna Allavaru, MPs Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Tariq Anwar, and Independent MP Pappu Yadav also joined the detailed discussions. Sources said a brief confrontation erupted between two candidates during the review, reflecting deep frustration within the party.
Speaking after the meeting, K.C. Venugopal said the candidates had raised serious concerns about violations during the electoral process. According to him, many flagged misuse of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, claiming it was used for targeted voter deletions, suspicious additions, and systematic disenfranchisement.
Venugopal also alleged that the MMRY (Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana) scheme was misused for blatant bribery, even at polling stations. He said the near-identical winning margins in several constituencies pointed to “a pattern that no independent Election Commission would ignore.”
“These issues indicate organised electoral malpractices and brazen violations of the Model Code of Conduct, carried out under the watch of an Election Commission that increasingly appears to be collaborating in the BJP’s election rigging,” Venugopal wrote on X.
