Dipankar Bhattacharya attributes ‘abnormal’ Bihar election results to 3 ‘experiments’

The opposition CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Sunday (November 17) claimed that the outcome of the Bihar assembly elections was "abnormal" and it was the result of three "experiments".

The experiments, according to him, were the transfer of Rs 10,000 to women as the first instalment of Mahila Rojgar Yojana, deletion and addition of names in the SIR exercise, and transfer of land at a throwaway price to a corporate house.

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The opposition party, an ally of the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, won just two seats out of the 20 it contested, which is much lower than the 12 out of 19 seats it won in the 2020 elections.

While talking to reporters, Bhattacharya claimed, "The poll dates were not announced until all the targeted welfare schemes of the government, including the provision of Rs 10,000 for women, materialised. This is an unprecedented and unique experiment in India's electoral history."

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He asserted that the deletion of 65 lakh votes through SIR and the addition of 3.5-4 lakh votes at a later stage ahead of the polls impacted the outcome. The SIR, he claimed, was the "second big experiment in the laboratory of Bihar". He dubbed the transfer of a piece of land "at a throwaway price" to a corporate house as the third experiment.

He said this third experiment is likely to "normalise corporatisation of Bihar's resources". This issue was raised by the opposition, but did not have any effect on the people, he further noted.

These "three experiments", he said, may decide the course and agenda of Indian politics in the times to come.

'Abnormal' election results

Asserting that the Bihar election results were "abnormal, beyond our hopes and comprehension," he said that the party and the alliance would mull over this aspect to decide the future course of action.

"From November 18 to 24, our candidates and party workers will go among the people as part of a feedback and public relations exercise," he said, adding that, "We need to stop these experiments; otherwise, there will be no level-playing field in politics".

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He further drew a comparison between the recent election results and the 2010 Bihar election results, in which the NDA registered a similar kind of victory. He said, "During that time period, Nitish Kumar was on the rise. But this time around, his government, along with the sentiments towards the NDA government at the Centre, is in decline."

Bhattacharya said India's electoral politics has an anomaly, as there is usually a mismatch between the vote percentage and the seats secured.

"Our votes since the 2020 elections have remained more or less the same, but the number of seats has plunged," he highlighted.