Cong’s Ajay Rai accuses BJP, EC of ‘organised vote theft’ in Bihar polls

Baghpat: Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai has levelled serious allegations against the BJP and the Election Commission, claiming that the Bihar Assembly election was marred by large-scale manipulation.

During an interaction with party workers at the Congress office on Delhi Road in Baraut, he accused the ruling party of engineering what he described as “organised vote theft”.

Rai alleged that nearly sixty five lakh votes were removed from the rolls in Bihar and claimed that top BJP leaders supervised the electoral process from behind the scenes.

He said he stayed at a hotel during the campaign and that another wing of the same hotel housed Home Minister Amit Shah. According to him, observers from Gujarat were called in from there to execute the alleged plan.

Rai said democracy is facing an unprecedented assault. He alleged that corruption and middlemen dominate police stations, block offices and the electricity department, leaving ordinary citizens harassed through false cases and bureaucratic pressure.

Targeting the government on national security, he said the Centre has still not explained how RDX reached the sites of major terror attacks in Delhi, Pulwama, Uri and Pathankot. He said several soldiers from Uttar Pradesh were martyred in these attacks and their families are yet to receive adequate support.

Raising issues concerning farmers, Rai said the state’s declaration of a sugarcane price of four hundred rupees was merely cosmetic. He claimed payments to farmers have been halted, causing widespread distress among cultivators.

Speaking on the Sonbhadra tragedy, Rai said illegal mining was a direct failure of the government since the Chief Minister was present in the district at the time.