Bihar Congress Chief says "SIR used as legal method of stealing votes," blames Centre for poll debacle

New Delhi [India], November 28 (ANI): Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram on Thursday said that the party's defeat in the recent Bihar Assembly elections was largely influenced by the Central government, adding that the SIR was used as a legal method of stealing votes.
He said the party is now focusing on rebuilding its organisation with new strategies following an internal review.
After meeting with the party leadership in the national capital regarding the Bihar election, Rajesh Ram, in the press conference, said, "All the candidates unanimously said that SIR was a legal method of stealing votes. Despite the code of conduct being imposed, people were helped financially. The second important thing was that we are reviewing the reasons for the defeat...there was no decline in the vote share of the INDIA Alliance, especially the vote share of the Congress Party."
"Our defeat in the elections was mainly influenced by the Central government, and now that we have done an internal review, we should focus on rebuilding our organisation with new methods," he said.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal today held a meeting at the party's headquarters, Indira Bhawan, in the national capital to review the reasons for the party's defeat in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections.
Congress won six of the 60 seats it contested in the Bihar elections with a conversion rate less than 10 per cent, which turned out to be a setback for the party that fought was part of the Mahagathbandhan.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the largest opposition party in the alliance, also performed poorly in recent elections, winning only 25 seats out of 143 constituencies.
The NDA registered a historic landslide victory in the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls, winning 202 of the 243 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan secured only 35 seats. The ruling alliance secured a three-fourths majority in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, marking the second time the NDA crossed the 200-seat mark in state polls. In 2010, it had won 206 seats.
In the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 89 seats, Janata Dal (United) won 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJPRV) won 19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS) won five, and Rashtriya Lok Morcha won four seats.
Other than RJD and Congress, the other Mahagathbandhan parties including Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) [CPI(ML)(L)] won two, the Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) one, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] one seat.
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) secured five seats, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won one seat.
The Bihar assembly elections were held in two phases on November 6 and 11. Bihar recorded a historic 67.13 per cent voter turnout, the highest since 1951, with women voters outpacing men (71.6 per cent vs 62.8 per cent). (ANI)