In the wake of its worst performance in the Bihar Assembly elections since 2010, the Congress has squarely blamed the Election Commission (EC) for its shocking performance, alleging "large-scale vote theft" and a "one-sided" poll process.

The party convened an emergency meeting on Saturday at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's residence, attended by top leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal, and Treasurer Ajay Maken, to take stock of the electoral disaster.

The Congress, which contested 61 seats as part of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), managed to secure a meagre six seats. This dismal strike rate of barely 10 per cent marks a steep decline, plunging the party into one of its lowest-ever tallies in the state and further shrinking its already peripheral presence in Bihar's political landscape.

For a party that once dominated the state, the result raises profound questions about its organizational strength and strategic relevance.

The poor show comes even as the Congress' primary alliance partner, the RJD, had a relatively better — though still unsuccessful — showing, suggesting the Congress was a significant drag on the overall Mahagathbandhan performance. This has revived internal dissent and concerns over the party's election management and strategy within the alliance.

Emerging from the review meeting, the party's focus was not on internal failures but on levelling serious allegations against the electoral body.

"Votes are being stolen. The Congress will conduct an in-depth review of the polling figures and then explain to the media the reasons for the defeat in Bihar. Within one-two weeks, we will present concrete evidence. The Election Commission is completely one-sided. This entire process is suspicious," alleged Venugopal.

Echoing the sentiment, Ajay Maken questioned the overwhelming mandate for the ruling alliance. "There have been question marks over the entire election process from the very beginning... Such a strike rate has never been seen before — not even in 1984, when the Congress had its best performance. No one anticipated this. Something is certainly wrong."

Maken further stated that alliance partners believe the results are "unexpected and must be investigated," confirming that teams are currently compiling data from the ground to substantiate claims of irregularities reported by party workers in Bihar.

The disastrous result is seen as the culmination of the Congress's steady organizational erosion in Bihar over the last three decades. Once a major force, the party has increasingly relied on being a junior partner in alliances, a strategy that this election has severely undermined. This result is a significant fall from the 19 seats it won in the 2020 elections.

The party's top leadership had recently campaigned on themes like alleged 'vote theft' through Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and caste census. However, analysts suggest that a weak ground preparation, poor candidate selection, and a failure to translate national issues into local voter connect ultimately overshadowed the central campaign narratives.

The Congress now faces the dual challenge of defending the integrity of the electoral process while simultaneously managing the inevitable internal crisis sparked by this historic rout.