RJD's Tejashwi Yadav was on Monday elected as Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly. To be recognised as the Leader of the Opposition in any assembly, a party must secure at least 10 per cent of the total strength of the House, which in this case is 25 (10% of 243). Incidentally, the RJD secured 25 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

After trailing by a huge margin in the initial rounds of counting, Tejashwi staged a comeback to defeat BJP’s Satish Kumar by 14,532 votes, retaining the family bastion of Raghopur. However, the nature of Tejashwi's victory did not go without notice.

Senior Congress leader Udit Raj on Monday accused the Election Commission of India and the BJP of manipulating the Bihar results to ensure Tejashwi Yadav’s victory. He argued that the RJD leader had trailed through most of the day, but the final hours flipped the race in his favour.

"Tejashwi Yadav did not win the elections, but they (the BJP and the Election Commission of India) ensured his victory, as he was trailing till the evening. To justify and present the elections as fair, they made sure he won. SIR and EVMs are being used as tools to secure their win, and they will destroy the Constitution of India. The elections were already decided, and they knew exactly what would happen," Raj told news agency ANI.

The Mahagathbandhan witnessed a steep rout, with the RJD’s seat tally plunging to 25 from 75. Its key ally in the state, the Congress, managed to win only six of the 61 seats it contested, compared to 19 in the previous election.

Source: India Today