The first phase of the Bihar assembly election completed on Thursday with a record 64.46% voter turnout. While this triggered speculation that people were voting for change— conventionally it is believed that whenever the voting percentage goes up in India, it means people are voting for change—there were sceptics who feared this might also be because of alleged electoral manipulation. 

 A day before the polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a presser in which he claimed that the Haryana state elections held earlier were stolen because the electoral roles were fudged and 25 lakh fake names were entered. The Election Commission has publicly sought evidence and urged Gandhi to file a sworn submission; meanwhile, independent reporting has found anomalies in specific constituencies, deepening the political stakes amid Bihar’s multicornered contests.


Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been in office for 20 years and is fighting anti-incumbency while the Opposition alliance led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejaswi Yadav is fighting allegations of creating lawlessness in Bihar the last time they were in power over 20 years ago.