With the Bihar Assembly slipping out of their grasp after a closely contested election, many amid the Mahagatbandhan have reacted with accusations and criticism. While the RJD alleges that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had acted unfairly to change the vote count in places where the RJD was winning, the Congress has focused its ire on Assaduddin Owaisi and his All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which was part of Grand Democratic Secular Front.
While the RJD delivered a strong performance, bagging the highest percentage of the vote share and emerging as the single largest party in the state, it's ally was lackluster at best. The Congress failed to match even its earlier performance, securing only 19 of the 70 seats that it had contested.
And while a few said that they would introspect on the results, others rushed to lay the blame at anyone's feet but theirs.
"BJP's tact of using (Asaduddin) Owaisi Sahab's party in the Bihar elections has succeeded to an extent. All secular parties should be alert about vote cutter Owaisi Sahab," opined Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
For those who haven't followed the polls, while the NDA secured 125 seats and the Mahagatbandhan garnered 110, the AIMIM won five seats. The Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist won two seats each, while the Bahujan Samaj Party won one seat, and an Independent was also elected to the Assembly.
And as they pointed fingers at Owaisi and his party, others lashed out at the Congress for deflecting blame. Among them, suspended Congress leader Sanjay Jha was especially vocal in his criticism for this "bizarre argument".
"His AIMIM has won 5 seats in Bihar. It is filling a vacant space. Please respect people’s verdict. Now even the Muslims are rejecting the Congress. They don’t trust it anymore. Smell the coffee!" he urged in a tweet.
While the party stance does not seem to have changed much since his post, a quick perusal of comments on social media show that most are in agreement with Jha. The accusations have also irked AIMIM leaders.
"Our Bihar president Akhtarul Iman went and met all the parties for the alliance but these parties treated us like untouchables and now they are blaming us their loss," the party quoted Owaisi as stating.
