Patna: RJD leader Tejaswhi Prasad Yadav who was elected leader of the five parties Grand Alliance legislature party on Thursday alleged the election results were rigged on the instructions of the chief minister and at least 20 constituencies were affected by manipulating the postal ballots.
Tejashwi who retained Raghopur seat by 38,000 votes margin alleged as the Grand Alliance candidates were leading till November 10 evening, all rules and regulations of the Election Commission were violated and large number of valid postal votes polled in favour of GA nominees were declared invalid. He claimed in some constituencies, postal votes up to 900 were declared invalid adversely affecting the GA candidates.
He alleged the returning officers violated section 15(4) of the Election Commission rules and allowed counting of postal ballots at the end. According to the rules, postal ballots are counted first. "At Ara, district headquarters of Bhojpur, a government vehicle loaded with boxes of postal ballots were sent to counting centres late in the evening," Tejashwi said.
Demanding recounting of the rejected postal ballot papers, he said the educated people who are on election duties or in the forward areas for security forces send postal ballots. They cannot go wrong, he said and alleged the chief election officer of Bihar had ignored the complaints of the RJD delegation which met him on November 10 evening. The returning officers could not satisfy the candidates on their complaints.
Tejashwi said in Bhorey assembly constituency of Gopalganj, JDU MP Alok Kumar Suman had entered the counting hall in violation of clause 16.9 of the candidates handbook. This violation is one of the grounds for recounting in the constituency. Former DG of police, Sunil Kumar of JDU was declared elected by slender margin over the CPI(ML) candidate. Additional chief election officer Balamurgan D has sought an explanation from Gopalganj DM.
He also alleged in two constituencies, RJD candidates were even issued certificates of election, but soon were asked to return them
RJD leader said, "We have lost the elections due to rigging by the Election Commission." Party would start a campaign from January against the commission and would direct the candidates hit by rigging to approach Patna High Court for justice.
Commenting on the claim of the chief minister, Nitish Kumar for another term, he said "Nitish Kumar will occupy the chair through deceit."
