Prashant Kishor accuses EC of ‘partiality’, says it's giving BJP ‘undue advantage’

Muzaffarpur, Sep 25 (PTI) Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Friday joined opposition parties in criticising the EC, alleging that "partiality" by the poll panel had given the ruling BJP an unfair "advantage".

Kishor, the Bankipur MLA, was responding to journalists' questions about a recent media report that flagged alleged differences within the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

"Let me point out that I was the first person to have highlighted the fact that the ruling BJP was getting undue advantage of the EC’s partiality. I had said so way back in 2021 after the West Bengal assembly polls," said Kishor, who had then handled the election campaign of the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee.

"I had clearly stated that the BJP could win 77 seats because of the EC’s benediction. Had the polls been free and fair, their tally would not have exceeded 50. The EC, by its partiality, has been ensuring that those in a close fight with the BJP ended up tasting defeat and those tipped for a massive victory won only by a modest margin," he said.

Kishor cited his own experience in the Bankipur Assembly seat as an example.

"I would have won by at least 50,000 votes, but for the EC turning a blind eye towards blatant misuse of the administrative machinery and the splurge of hundreds of crores by the BJP during the campaign," alleged Kishor, who had wrested the seat from the saffron party that it never lost in 30 years.

The Jan Suraaj Party founder said that "conduct of elections is compromised on all counts, be it funds, use of the bureaucracy or tinkering with the electoral rolls".

He added, "The rot did not begin with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. One of his predecessors, upon retirement, has become chairman of a bank, though he had been no banking sector expert. Clearly, it is a case of quid pro quo," he alleged. PTI