A day before the second and final phase of the Bihar Assembly elections, the INDIA Alliance’s Chief Ministerial face, Tejashwi Yadav, launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission and the NDA government, saying that “the BJP commits sins, and the Election Commission covers them up.”

Addressing a press conference in Patna on Monday, the RJD leader questioned the fairness and transparency of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and alleged that the Commission is hiding data.

“VVPAT slips have been found in a garbage dump in Sarairanjan. The CCTV of the strong room keeps going off. Police companies are being sent only from BJP-ruled states, and about two-thirds of the observers are from those very states,” he claimed.

Raising questions about the deployment of police forces only from BJP-ruled states, he said, “A total of 208 companies of security forces have been called from BJP-ruled states. This raises a serious question, why were forces not called from Bengal, Jharkhand, Kerala, or Tamil Nadu? They are coming from Meghalaya and Tripura, but not from neighbouring states. Why?”

Tejashwi further said there is a gloomy atmosphere in the NDA camp, and those in power are scared.

“The Home Minister (Amit Shah) has no other work and is camping in Patna. Out of fear of losing, he is meeting officials and threatening them over the phone. Wherever he stays, the hotel’s CCTV is turned off, and officials are summoned late at night,” he alleged.

“They have called senior officers, instructing them where to create disturbances. Continuous calls are being made to give directions. Their panic shows they are on their way out,” he claimed, asserting that the information came from officials who received those calls.

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on “jungle raj” during election rallies in Bihar, Tejashwi said the PM has ignored the criminals and corrupt leaders within the BJP and its allies.

“Does the Prime Minister not see the corruption of Samrat Choudhary, Dilip Jaiswal, or Mangal Pandey?

He shared the stage with Bihar’s most notorious criminals. Do Ullas Pandey, Manorama Devi, Anand Mohan, Sunil Pandey, Anant Singh, and Raj Vallabh appear to him as saints and sages? The main accused in the Srijan scam, Vipin Sharma, was given a special pass, invited to the airport, and personally patted on the back by the Prime Minister. Why?” he asked.

Reiterating his development promise, Tejashwi said no one from Bihar would need to migrate to other states in search of better opportunities.

“After November 14, Bihar will be made the number one state in the country, with proper arrangements for food processing units, industries, education, healthcare, employment, irrigation, super-specialty hospitals, an Educational City, and an IT hub,” he added.