SIR is leading, not BJP–JD(U); this is murder of democracy: Congress leader Udit Raj on NDA’s Bihar lead

New Delhi: Congress leader Udit Raj on Friday questioned the early lead of the ruling NDA in the Bihar Assembly elections, calling it a “victory of the Election Commission” rather than the BJP-JD(U) alliance.

Speaking to reporters, Udit Raj said, “SIR is leading. I won’t say that this victory is of the BJP-JD(U); this is a victory of the Election Commission, of SIR. After the voter list was sanitised, lakhs of discrepancies were pointed out, but the EC didn’t respond to even one. When objections were being raised, 89 lakh objections were submitted. Still, the EC said that nobody is raising any complaint. When they stoop to this level of cheating, what can we say? This is murder of democracy. If you delete the names of Opposition voters and send back thousands of voters despite them having digital slips…there was a wave of change in Bihar. BJP leaders were chased away by people at several locations. So, how are they winning? I feel this is a victory of SIR.”

Early trends from the Election Commission indicate that the NDA has crossed the majority mark, leading in 136 of the 243 assembly seats. The alliance is poised to comfortably secure over 150 seats, while the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, headed by Tejashwi Yadav, is struggling to match its previous tally. Notable leaders such as Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha are trailing in Lakhisarai, BJP’s Mangal Pandey in Siwan, and JD(U)’s Sunil Kumar is leading in Bhorey.

Counting began at 8 a.m. across all constituencies, with postal ballots tallied first, followed by EVM votes. Security arrangements included 4,372 counting tables and over 18,000 counting agents. The two-phase polls on November 6 and 11 saw participation from 2,616 candidates representing 12 recognised political parties, with no repoll requests reported.