Patna, May 14 After the victory of Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Sonu Kumar Rai in the Bihar Legislative Council by-election for the Bhojpur-Buxar seat, Rashtriya Janata Dal National Executive President Tejashwi Yadav congratulated him and credited party workers and voters for the win.
“In the Bhojpur–Buxar Member of Legislative Council by-election, Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Sonu Rai has handed a crushing defeat to the National Democratic Alliance candidate. I extend my heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to all party workers, voters, and leaders on this victory,” he said.
Tejashwi Yadav also reiterated his party’s long-standing demand for conducting elections through ballot papers instead of Electronic Voting Machines.
He alleged that if elections were held using ballot papers, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance would struggle to win.
“We have maintained from the very beginning that if elections in the country and the state were conducted using ballot papers rather than machines, the Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance would not stand a chance anywhere.
“In the Bihar Assembly elections, we had secured over 150 seats via postal ballots; however, we were ultimately defeated through a combination of administrative manipulation, technical manoeuvring, conspiracy, deceit, and fraud,” he said.
He further raised concerns about delays in declaring results on the counting day, noting that results are sometimes announced late at night.
“Nowadays, even on the day of vote counting, election results are often not declared until late at night, sometimes as late as 1 or 2 a.m.
“In the past, counting ballot papers used to take approximately the same amount of time. Therefore, to uphold democratic transparency and preserve public trust in the democratic process, why should elections not now be conducted using ballot papers instead of Electronic Voting Machines?” he added.
Reaffirming his party’s stance, he concluded by congratulating the candidate once again and reiterating support for ballot paper-based elections.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Sonu Kumar Rai won the Legislative Council by-election for the Bhojpur–Buxar Local Authorities constituency, defeating Janata Dal (United) nominee Kanhaiya Prasad by 340 votes.
Voting for the by-election was held on May 12, with counting beginning at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
Out of a total of 5,956 votes cast, Sonu Kumar Rai secured 2,486 votes, while Kanhaiya Prasad received 2,146 votes.
Manoj Upadhyay got 636 votes, and 621 votes were declared invalid.
The counting process was conducted across 13 tables in two rounds.
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