Rahul Gandhi says result ‘shocking’

New Delhi, Nov 15: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he was “shocked” by the Bihar assembly election outcome, after the party recorded its worst-ever performance in the state, The Times of India reported.

Contesting 61 seats as part of the Grand Alliance, the Congress managed to win only six — a strike rate of just 9.83 percent. In 2020, it had won 19 of the 70 seats it contested. Several senior leaders, including state Congress chief Rajesh Kumar, CLP leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan and former CLP leader Ajit Sharma, lost their seats.

In a post on social media, Gandhi said the party had “failed to win an election that was not fair from the start,” while thanking voters for their support. “This fight is to protect the Constitution and democracy,” he wrote. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the party would examine the results in detail before presenting a full assessment. Of the six seats won, two were narrow victories. In Chanpatia, Abhishek Ranjan defeated BJP’s Umakant Singh by 602 votes, while in Forbesganj, Manoj Biswas beat BJP’s Vidya Sagar Keshri by 221 votes. The other wins came in Valmiki Nagar, Araria, Kishanganj and Manihari. Shakeel Ahmad Khan, who lost Kadwa to JD(U)’s Dulal Chandra Goswami by more than 18,000 votes, said the party accepted the verdict but claimed the outcome reflected the impact of the Rs 10,000 cash transfer to women announced before voting.