Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 15: The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which was part of the opposition coalition “Mahagathbandhan” in the Bihar state Assembly elections, has squarely blamed the Congress leadership for dismally failing to cobble together a broad-based coalition of secular, democratic and regional parties to thwart the BJP-led NDA’s march to victory in the just-concluded state elections.
The CPI(M) Kerala unit secretary M.V. Govindan told a press conference on Saturday that had the Congress taken the responsibility to retard the NDA in Bihar seriously and with tactical diligence, the electoral picture in the State would have been starkly different.
He said the Congress ill-advisedly undermined the chances of anti-BJP parties, including regional outfits, by fielding candidates in what it termed “friendly matches.” For one, Mr Govindan pointed out that Congress fielded candidates in four seats where the Communist Party of India (CPI), an INDIA bloc ally, was contesting. “In one constituency, the votes polled by CPI and Congress candidates surpassed that garnered by the NDA candidate by a wide margin,” he said.
Mr Govindan stated that the Congress’ candidate selection was riven by regional feuding, resulting in “a rebel menace” in scores of winnable constituencies, further advantaging the BJP by splitting anti-incumbency votes.
Mr Govindan singled out the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, [Organisation], KC Venugopal for the blame. “Mr Venugopal, who is second only to President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi in the AICC hierarchy, forsook his Bihar responsibility to feverishly carve a leadership niche for himself in Kerala politics, by intervening incessantly in provincial politics ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, giving national issues the go-by,” he stated. Mr Govindan said it was not too late for the Congress leadership to analyse the poll defeat and correct course.
Mr Govindan also questioned the impartiality of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and claimed that the poll body had advantaged the NDA by employing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list to “disenfranchise” an estimated 65 lakhs to one crore voters in Bihar.
“Unaccounted election spending powered by black money, mishandling of electronic vote machines (EVM), and a vicious communal campaign aligned with identitarian politics rather than broad-based livelihood issues, catalysed by brazen abuse of power, supercharged the NDA’s election juggernaut in Bihar,” Mr Govindan said.
Mr Govindan accused the ECI of disregarding what he termed “unabashed code-of-conduct violations” by the Nitish Kumar Government. “For one, the NDA government made a one-time payment of ₹10,000 to voters after the model code of conduct came into force. The government beguiled voters by falsely claiming that the allowance is monthly. In contrast, the ECI struck down a similar move by an incumbent government in Tamil Nadu decades ago,” he added.
Meanwhile, following the NDA’s sweeping victory, the process of forming the new government gained momentum on Saturday, with alliance partners convening separate meetings of their newly elected legislators in Patna. Leaders of the NDA also called on chief minister Nitish Kumar to extend their congratulations.
According to senior alliance members, the formal government formation exercise was expected to begin within the next two to three days, once all victorious MLAs, many still in their constituencies, arrive in the state capital. The current assembly’s term ends on November 22, and the 18th Bihar assembly will be constituted on or before that date.
The BJP MLA Sanjiv Chaurasiya dismissed any uncertainty over the leadership question in the state, saying, “Everything is clear. Where is the difficulty in this?” when asked whether Nitish Kumar would continue as chief minister.
LJP(RV) chief Chirag Paswan said representatives of the party had met Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, adding that there had been a discussion on government formation. “Representatives of LJP(RV) met Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and discussed government formation in the state,” Mr Paswan said. He further said the representatives congratulated Nitish on the NDA poll victory.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took aim at the Congress while reflecting on the NDA’s victory in Bihar, asserting that the party has been struggling across state elections held after the Lok Sabha polls. “The state elections that followed the Lok Sabha elections, in all those, Congress was in a dire state. We won more MLAs in Bihar yesterday than the Congress won in these five or six states combined,” he said.
He also repeated instances of verbal attacks against chief minister Nitish Kumar and a decline in parliamentary decorum contributed to voter resentment in Bihar. “You must have seen the scenes in the Bihar Assembly over the past two or three years. The way insulting Nitish Kumar became fashionable, with vulgar language being used. The way the other ‘naamdaar’ in the Parliament violates the decorum of the Parliament, the same was happening in Patna,” he said in a rally in Gujarat.
Modi added that such behaviour alienated voters. “Neither the people of the country accept this, nor could the people of Bihar. There are many such things that created an atmosphere of complete hatred towards them in this election.”
The Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) spokesperson Tarique Anwar Chaparni, reacting to the party’s defeat, said the organisation would spend the next five years reviewing its performance. He wrote in a post on ‘X’, “The analysis will continue for a full five years. But after scouring the streets of Bihar for three years, I have a one-liner analysis. No one has a counter-narrative to the BJP’s ‘nationalism’ narrative. Until a counter emerges, go ahead and keep cursing Modi for that self-satisfying thrill. The more abuse Modi gets, the more the poor Hindu in the village starts tying it to his self-respect and pride.”
Meanwhile, the former union minister and MP from Aarah, RK Singh, was suspended by the BJP’s Bihar unit citing “anti-party” activities. In a letter to him, the BJP unit said: “Your activities are against the party. This falls under the purview of indiscipline. The party has taken this seriously. This has caused damage to the party.”
