Rahul Gandhi meets Kharge to discuss Congress Bihar poll drubbing, party asserts ‘vote chori’ charge

A day after facing a violent crackdown in Bihar, on Saturday, November 15, 2025, as the Congress questioned the Election Commission’s role in the poll process, senior leaders including Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge met to discuss the poll results.

Sources said Mr. Kharge and Mr. Gandhi were also joined by AICC general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, party treasurer Ajay Maken and AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru.

According to sources, the leaders met to discuss the poor performance of the Congress in Bihar, where the party won only six of the 61 seats it contested; This was the party’s second-worst showing in the state after 2010, when it won just four seats.

Bihar elections 2025 results LIVE updates

Mr Gandhi did not speak to media persons after the meeting as leaders of the Mahagathbandhan, of which the Congress is a part, remained in a state of disbelief after the NDA swept the polls.

Asked about the Bihar poll result and the party’s poor performance, Mr. Venugopal tried to put all the blame on the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming that the entire poll process was questionable and there was no transparency. He said the party will soon analyze the result and come out with concrete evidence in the next few weeks.

“This result from Bihar is incredible for all of us. This is not just for the Congress. The entire people of Bihar and our alliance partners also do not believe this. We have met all of them; they do not believe this,” Mr. Venugopal said.

“Because a strike rate of over 90 per cent for a political party – which has not happened in the history of India. We are doing a comprehensive analysis; collecting data from all over Bihar. We will come out with concrete evidence in a week or two,” he told reporters.

Alleging that the process of electioneering is “completely questionable”, he said the party leaders have been continuously raising the issue during electioneering.

“The Election Commission is completely one-sided. Whatever they do, there is no transparency and hence this process is questionable. Anyway, we will collect all the data from all over Bihar and then present the facts,” he said.

Asked about Mr Gandhi’s comments calling the election “unfair”, Mr Venugopal said: “We were talking about (the role of) the Election Commission and we talked about it during the Haryana elections – the Haryana election was rigged.”

“We came forward with evidence and made the Election Commission question our evidence,” he asked.

“We will come with concrete evidence in the Bihar polls too,” he said.

On Friday, November 14, 2025, Mr. Gandhi said the Bihar election result was surprising. He claimed that the election was unfair from the beginning and that is why the party failed to achieve much.

Mr. Gandhi also said the Congress and the INDIA bloc would conduct an in-depth review of the results.

The Congress had also claimed that the election results in Bihar undoubtedly reflected the “chorus of votes on a massive scale led by the Prime Minister, His Majesty and the Election Commission”.

Rahul Gandhi’s poll campaign against the BJP revolved around allegations of “Vote for Chori” (vote theft).