Senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel launched a scathing attack on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Friday, sarcastically crediting him with a "crucial" and "responsible" role in orchestrating the Bihar assembly election results, as early trends projected a sweeping National Democratic Alliance (NDA) victory with leads in over 180 of the 243 seats.
Speaking to PTI as Congress' senior observer for the Bihar polls, Baghel declared the Election Commission's conduct had made the outcome "clear" from the outset, pointing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's prior prediction of a three-fourth NDA majority and extending premature "congratulations and best wishes" to Kumar for what he implied was a manipulated electoral exercise.
Baghel elaborated that the CEC's actions throughout the election process left no ambiguity about institutional bias, asserting that Gyanesh Kumar deserved full recognition for the NDA's anticipated landslide, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) record-breaking individual performance, which signaled a decisive voter mandate—or, in his view, a engineered one.
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Defending the Congress-RJD alliance despite criticisms of the latter's past "jungle raj" governance, Baghel countered that younger generations are unaware of historical chaos but fully recognize the "current jungle raj" under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, framing the election narrative as a broader national struggle rather than a state-specific failure.
When pressed on recurring concerns over electronic voting machines (EVMs), Baghel cryptically warned that "many more things will come out," hinting at deeper irregularities yet to surface, while maintaining his focus on the Election Commission's leadership as the central architect of the controversial Bihar verdict now unfolding across counting centers.
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