Mumbai: As counting trends from Bihar show a massive win for the ruling NDA in the assembly polls, Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan on Friday said the Congress, part of the Opposition alliance in the Hindi belt state, was being rejected across the country.
He noted Bihar was essentially a contest against the possible return of 'jungle raj', referring to lawlessness under the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led government in the 1990s headed by former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose son Tejashwi, was the Opposition bloc's CM face in the current polls.
The RJD heads the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.
"One needs to understand that the Congress party is getting rejected across the country," Chavan told reporters at the state BJP headquarters in Mumbai while reacting to the counting trends from Bihar.
He said the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and joint efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have propelled the NDA, in which the BJP and JD(U) are key constituents, on way to a landslide victory in the Bihar polls.
While the November 6 and 11 polls were projected as a tough fight between the Opposition and the ruling alliance, the real contest turned out to be between Independent candidates and the Congress, he remarked sarcastically.
Responding to the Congress's allegations of "vote theft", Chavan insisted these were just attempts to create a fake narrative during the poll campaign.
Several issues were clarified after the Election Commission conducted extensive checks following vote theft allegations, the former state minister maintained.
"The way (Congress MP) Rahul Gandhi tried to present topics, people have proved how insignificant they actually are," he stated.
Chavan further claimed the Bihar outcome had given a clear indication of what will happen in Mumbai, where municipal polls are to be held before January-end.
He said the Modi government has extended substantial financial support for infrastructure projects such as the metro rail and coastal road, and asserted the metropolis would vote for the Mahayuti, which consists of the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP.
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Ashish Shelar said the electorate in Bihar had rejected allegations of vote tampering, EVM manipulation and bogus voters.
In a post on X, Shelar expressed the hope the voters in Maharashtra and Mumbai would deliver a similar verdict in the upcoming local body polls.
The BJP leader thanked the people of Bihar for giving the NDA a decisive mandate and congratulated party leaders, office-bearers, workers and volunteers for their efforts.
The NDA is heading for a landslide win, having registered impressive leads in more than 180 of Bihar's 243 assembly seats.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
