‘Ballot papers used, guess how many seats Congress won?’ PM Modi takes dig after party draws blank in MLC polls

Amid the ongoing row over the Election Commission’s SIR exercise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at the Congress after it failed to win a single seat in the Legislative Council elections across four states, despite the polls being held using ballot papers. The setback was particularly significant in Karnataka, where the Congress is in power but failed to win any of the four seats contested.

Modi appeared to be aiming at the Opposition’s repeated allegations of electronic voting machine (EVM) manipulation.

“MLC elections in 28 seats across 4 big states - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka,” PM Modi wrote on X, noting that the “elections [were] held using ballot papers”.

“Guess how many seats Congress won?” he asked, taking a swipe at the party.

His remarks come ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s planned ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest on November 1 against alleged electoral malpractices, including voter disenfranchisement during the SIR exercise and alleged EVM manipulation. Gandhi has also led protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the controversy.

BJP-JD(S) sweep Karnataka

The results marked a setback for the Congress, particularly in Karnataka, where it is in power. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), won all four seats contested in the state, including one previously held by a Congress MLC.

The BJP secured three seats, and the JD(S) won one in the October 23 elections for graduate and teacher constituencies.

The outcome reversed the trend from June, when the Congress won five of the seven Legislative Council seats contested in Karnataka, while the BJP secured two amid allegations of cross-voting by BJP and JD(S) MLAs.

BJP and SP lead contest in Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, where 11 seats were contested, the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) emerged as the main contenders.

The BJP won four seats, retaining Bareilly-Moradabad and Lucknow and securing the Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies in Meerut. The SP won the Varanasi Teachers’ and Agra-Aligarh Teachers’ seats.

Counting was still underway in other constituencies at the time of publication.

Mixed results in Bihar

Bihar’s eight-seat contest produced a varied outcome. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won the Patna Teachers’ constituency, the BJP secured the Tirhut Teachers’ seat, and Independent candidate Rahul Raj won the Saran Teachers’ constituency.

Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) opened its account in the Legislative Council after Suresh Prasad Rai defeated sitting Congress MLC Madan Mohan Jha by 324 votes in the Darbhanga Teachers’ constituency.

JD(U)’s Neeraj Kumar also defeated the RJD candidate in Patna Graduates, although the official result was awaited.

Mahayuti and MVA contest Maharashtra seats

In Maharashtra, the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) contested five Legislative Council seats, with 182 candidates in the fray.

In the 78-member House, the BJP has 35 MLCs, followed by the Shiv Sena with 12 and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 10. The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) have five members each, while the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) has two.