New Delhi, Nov 14 (IANS) The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi broke his silence on the Bihar debacle on Friday, terming the NDA’s 200-plus seat landslide “truly surprising” and declaring that the election “was not fair from the start”.

In a post on X, LoP Rahul Gandhi thanked millions of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ voters while signalling a sharper confrontation with the ruling establishment over democratic institutions.

“I express my heartfelt gratitude to the millions of voters in Bihar who placed their faith in Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance),” he wrote.

“This result in Bihar is truly surprising. We failed to win an election that was not fair from the start. This fight is to protect the Constitution and democracy. The Congress Party and the INDIA Alliance will deeply review this result and intensify their efforts to protect democracy.”

The statement came after the Mahagathbandhan was decimated to under 40 seats, with Congress itself reduced to a humiliating 5-6 from 61 contested.

LoP Rahul Gandhi’s phrasing echoed party colleague Jairam Ramesh’s earlier charge of “vote chori on a gigantic scale” but stopped short of naming the Prime Minister, Home Minister, or Election Commission directly.

Congress insiders revealed that LoP Rahul Gandhi held a virtual meeting with Bihar in-charges late evening, instructing a “forensic audit” of voter deletions, booth-level discrepancies, and EVM movement logs.

Party workers claimed over 18 lakh names—mostly from Muslim, Dalit, and EBC pockets—were struck off during the special summary revision, a figure the EC countered as “standard cleansing of 14.7 lakh duplicates and 3.2 lakh deceased”.

Within the INDIA Bloc, reactions were measured. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, whose party dropped from 75 to 31 seats, praised LoP Rahul Gandhi’s “moral clarity” but urged focus on “organisational collapse” rather than institutional sabotage alone.

CPI(ML) Liberation’s Dipankar Bhattacharya endorsed the “unfair election” line, citing CCTV blackouts in 127 strong rooms.

The BJP pounced instantly. Spokesperson Sambit Patra called it “the whining of a prince who lost his toy kingdom”, while Amit Shah posted a video of women voters crediting Nitish Kumar’s welfare schemes.

“Bihar’s daughters rejected the dynasty. Rahul ji should introspect instead of insulting their verdict,” Patra wrote.

As Congress gears up for municipal polls in Delhi and Rajasthan, LoP Rahul Gandhi’s pledge to “intensify” the constitutional battle hints at nationwide protests, legal challenges to the EC’s revision process, and a renewed Bharat Jodo leg focused on electoral integrity.

–IANS

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