Prashant Kishor alleges Friday polling for Bihar council seats is meant to reduce Muslim turnout, questions EC’s neutrality

The Election Commission of India (ECI) scheduled the 23 October elections to eight seats in the Bihar legislative council on a Friday so that there would be “minimum participation of Muslim voters”, Prashant Kishor, the Bankipur MLA who founded the Jan Suraaj Party, has alleged, according to a PTI report that ThePrint published on 16 October. He made the allegation in Jamui during campaigning for the council elections.

PTI quoted Kishor as asking, “Why are these being held on a Friday and not on a Sunday?” He noted that Sundays had customarily been chosen for such elections, and said that over the past eight to ten years “the Election Commission has lost its credibility as an institution”.

Charges against the Commission

ANI reported that Kishor, addressing the media on Wednesday, 14 October, in Supaul, said the Commission frequently seems to be “aiding the ruling dispensation”. He pointed to the way voter rolls are prepared, names struck off during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), observers appointed and the Model Code of Conduct enforced. ANI quoted him as saying, “A large section of society is discontented with the Election Commission’s functioning over the past decade.”

According to ANI, Kishor said agitation over alleged “vote theft” would go on until reforms that are transparent and credible are brought in. Responding to a question on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s comment connecting the Delhi protests with “regime change like Bangladesh”, Kishor replied that he was not much concerned with what Singh said, or with what happens to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, PTI reported.

• Polling for eight seats in the Bihar legislative council takes place on 23 October.
• PTI said Jan Suraaj has fielded candidates for all eight seats, while the BJP and JD(U) have four apiece.
• According to Kishor, the Bankipur bypoll took place within 28 days of being announced.

No reaction from the Election Commission was included in the reports.

Swipe at Samrat Choudhary

Late on Thursday at Bihta, near Patna, Kishor took on Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary for a comment made at an event celebrating Narendra Modi’s 25 years in public office. As Kishor described it in the PTI report, Choudhary had remarked that Lord Ram had spent 400 years living in a tent and that it was Modi who provided the deity with a place to live. PTI quoted Kishor as saying, “What is this if not arrogance.”

PTI also reported that Kishor stood by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the other leaders who took out a march to the Supreme Court over the SIR earlier this week, arguing that the public no longer trusted the Election Commission.

Promises on the campaign trail

In Supaul, Kishor said that before the Lok Sabha elections Jan Suraaj would press for teachers of every category in Bihar to get the Seventh Pay Commission scale, and that should the party fail, he “will not come asking for votes in the Lok Sabha polls”, ANI reported. According to ANI, he also dared Nitish Kumar, the former Chief Minister, to put out a one-minute video backing the JD(U) candidate, saying Jan Suraaj would pull out its own candidate if Kumar did so.

Sources: ThePrint (PTI), ThePrint (PTI), ANI