Former Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad, who resigned earlier this week, has sharply criticised the Opposition’s performance in the recent Bihar Assembly elections. He questioned the selection of candidates, the claims about 6.5 million voters being removed from the electoral rolls, and the overall strategy adopted by the Opposition alliance.
Speaking to IANS on November 16, Ahmad said the allegation of widespread voter deletion lacked evidence on the ground.
“If such a massive deletion had really happened, some affected voters would have protested. Even 65 people, or at least a few thousand, should have raised objections. But nothing of that sort was seen,” he said. He also noted that no major political party — including the Left, RJD or Congress — organised public demonstrations on the issue.
Commenting on the Bihar poll results, Ahmad described the Opposition alliance’s performance as “unexpected and shocking”. He clarified that he no longer represents the Congress, but as an independent citizen, even he was surprised by the poor outcome.
Looking back at Bihar’s voting trends since 1995, he said the state has followed a “section-wise” voting pattern. “Earlier, even when we were not aligned with Lalu Yadav, around 85 per cent of certain sections supported him. Over time, these groups split, and only two sections remained with our alliance,” he explained.
Ahmad also argued that the Opposition’s gains in the 2020 elections came largely because LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan had fielded candidates against JD(U), weakening the NDA.
He supported senior Congress leader Tariq Anwar’s criticism of seat-sharing, questioning why candidates who lost by very large margins in 2020 were given tickets again.
“There should be clear criteria. Those who lost by over 100 votes were denied tickets, but those who lost by 63,000 votes were nominated. What sense does that make?” he asked.
On reports that VIP chief Mukesh Sahani was offered the Deputy CM’s post despite representing only 2–2.5% of the population, while Muslims — 18% of Bihar’s population — were overlooked, Ahmad said it created a “bad perception” and sent a message that Muslim votes were being taken for granted.
He also raised concerns about giving tickets to individuals with a BJP-RSS background, saying that if the Opposition alliance had won, such candidates might have returned to the BJP.
Ahmad’s remarks have added to the internal debate within the Opposition as parties analyse the reasons behind their electoral defeat.
With inputs from IANS