"Election was like an obstacle race": CPI(M-L) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya

Patna (Bihar) [India], November 14 (ANI): As Bihar prepares for the counting of votes in the 2025 assembly elections, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation CPI(M-L) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya has raised concerns about the electoral process.
Bhattacharya compared the election to an "obstacle race," and expressed concerns about the vote-counting process, calling it "another obstacle". Bhattacharya announced that "all our organisations" have taken steps to ensure vigilance during the counting process. The party is urging the Election Commission to ensure a clean and fair counting process.
CPI(M-L) leader Bhattacharya, while addressing a press conference, said, "This time's election was like an obstacle race... This time we saw that all those people who managed to save their names in the voter list came to vote... Another obstacle is ensuring that votes are counted properly... All our organisations have talked among themselves. All our workers are ready. With vigilance, people will stay at the counting centres throughout the day. The Election Commission should ensure that the counting happens in a clean and fair manner..."
The vote counting for the Bihar Assembly Election is scheduled to take place on November 14.
Later, while speaking to ANI, Bhattacharya recounted the voting experience in 2020 and alleging that it was "not good".
"We are hopeful that the vote counting will be done fairly. The experience in 2020 was not good, and the last time we saw rigging was in the narrow-margin seats. However, I am confident that there will be a change in Bihar.", Bhattacharya said.
CPI(M-L) is part of the INDIA Bloc and is contesting the Bihar Assembly Election as part of the Mahagathbandhan.
The counting for the 243 Bihar assembly polls will be conducted on November 14. The winner will be declared on the same evening, marking the end of a nearly month-long election campaign.
This is the first assembly election in the country in two decades, which was conducted following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
The exit polls predicted that the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is poised to form the government again in Bihar.
In the 2020 polling took place in three phases. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 125 seats, while the opposition Mahagathbandhan (MGB) won 110.
Among the major parties in NDA, the JD(U) contested on 115 constituencies and secured 43 seats, while the BJP won 74 out of 110 seats it contested. In Mahagathbandhan, the RJD contested 144 seats and won 75, and the Congress won 19 seats out of 70. (ANI)