The Congress leadership on Thursday convened a high-intensity review meeting to dissect the party’s humiliating performance in the Bihar Assembly elections. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leader Rahul Gandhi and general secretary K.C. Venugopal led the closed-door brainstorming session as candidates and state leaders detailed what they believed went wrong in the campaign.
According to participants, the state government’s ₹10,000 cash assistance scheme for women, delays in finalising Mahagathbandhan seat-sharing, internal discord and widespread electoral malpractices collectively derailed the Congress campaign.
Throughout the day, Kharge, Gandhi and Venugopal met candidates in clusters of ten to hear their assessments. They later held an extended session with senior state leaders, including Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram, AICC in-charge Krishna Allavaru, MPs Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Tariq Anwar, along with Independent MP Pappu Yadav from Purnia.
Amid the heated reviews, reports emerged of a verbal clash between two candidates, signalling the depth of frustration within the party ranks.
After the meeting, K.C. Venugopal shared a blistering account of what candidates had revealed. He said the aspirants raised concerns about electoral malpractice, Model Code of Conduct violations and alleged voter deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Venugopal wrote on X that candidates explained “how SIR (Special Intensive Revision) enabled targeted voter deletions and dubious additions, how blatant cash bribery under the so-called MMRY (Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana) scheme was used to influence voters even at the polling stations and how identical margins across constituencies exposed a pattern that no independent election commission would ever overlook.”
He further alleged, “These issues point to organised electoral malpractices and brazen violations of the Model Code of Conduct, carried out under the watch of an ECI that has increasingly behaved like an active collaborator in BJP's election rigging.”
Calling the Bihar verdict a “stolen mandate”, Venugopal asserted that democracy had been “assaulted”, adding that Congress would not allow such an election to set a precedent. “The fight to protect India's democracy continues — fearlessly, relentlessly, and with the people by our side,” he said.
