- Tejashwi Yadav has said a strategy has been developed "to slow down the entire counting process"
- The Opposition has accused the Election Commission of bias, which the poll body denied
- Exit polls have predicted victory for the NDA, but they have been inaccurate in the past
Tejashwi Yadav, the Chief Ministerial candidate of the Grand Alliance, on the eve of counting of assembly poll votes, has spoken of a BJP plan to manipulate the results. Speaking at a press conference late this evening, Yadav said, "We have received information that a strategy has been developed to slow down the entire counting process tomorrow, especially in seats where the margins are low".
"Our appeal to all officials, and especially the Election Commission, is that -- count the votes impartially," he added.
His concern over low-margin seats comes in the backdrop of the results of the 2020 assembly election. That time, the Opposition Grand Alliance had lost a handful of seats by narrow margins - sometimes less than 1,000 votes.
The alliance had ended up with just a 12-seat gap with the ruling NDA -- 110 seats to NDA's 122 in the 243-member Bihar assembly. The RJD had emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats.
Tejashwi Yadav's comments also come in the backdrop of the Opposition allegations of vote theft against the Election Commission and the furore over the Special Intensive Revision of voter list or SIR in Bihar.
The Congress was the first to allege that the poll body was working at the behest of the BJP to ensure a mandate for the ruling NDA. The BJP and the Election Commission Rahul Gandhi had targeted in PowerPoint presentations, have rubbished the allegations.
About the voter list revision, the Opposition has alleged that it was an exercise to disenfranchise non-NDA voters. This, too, has been refuted by the Election Commission.
Tejashwi Yadav also alleged today that money power has been used on large scale in this election to purchase votes.
"When we set out on the Voter Rights Yatra with Rahul Gandhi, it was clear that we would form government with more than 200 seats... But people steal mandates by distributing money illegally in the dark of night, especially the NDA government," he said.
Exit polls have predicted that the ruling NDA will retain power in the state and the BJP will emerge as the single-largest party. An aggregate of nine exit polls has indicated that the ruling NDA will get 147 and the Grand Alliance 90 seats.
The RJD will score between 57 and 69 seats - down from 75. The Congress, which won 19 seats last time, will slide to 14.
Exit polls, though, don't always get it right. Most have got Bihar wrong multiple times.
The counting of votes will begin at 8 am on Friday.
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