New Delhi, February 6
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a plea filed by Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj party seeking to set aside the entire 2025 Bihar Assembly election results on the ground that it was won "illegally by distributing Rs. 15,600 crores of cash to voters."
A bench led by CJI Surya Kant, said that the petitioners have the liberty to approach the High Court with the same relief.
"We can't issue a notice like this. There is a procedure. It is just a composite election petition. Because you lost the elections, you say to set aside the entire election result. What is this view of a political party that has lost everything in the election, then you want to come here? Even that issue (on welfare policies), we won't like to have a political party before us. It must be some public-spirited person. Because if we entertain this, if this party gets to power, they will do the same thing," the CJI remarked during the hearing.
The petition filed by the party alleges that the then Bihar government, under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, deliberately added additional recipients in the "Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana" before announcing the Rs 10,000 Direct Benefit Transfer after the election dates were set. The party claims that this, in itself, "amply demonstrates corrupt practice adopted to unduly allure and influence the electors to vote in favour of the ruling government."
"That just before the General Assembly Elections of Bihar in 2025, the then Government of Bihar, through a Cabinet decision, launched a state-wide scheme for women known as "Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana" wherein the Government of Bihar decided to provide financial help, through Direct Benefit Transfer to one woman in every family by paying Rs.10,000/- to start self-employment. It was further stated that a sum of Rs. 2,00,000/- will also be paid subsequently to every woman post assessment," the party's petition read.
"As per the newspaper reports dated November 28, 2025, the total beneficiaries paid under the scheme was said to be 1.56 Crores implying that new beneficiaries were added during MCC/ Election process and the said beneficiaries were paid post the announcement of election schedule and during subsistence of MCC which in itself, amply demonstrates corrupt practice adopted to unduly allure and influence the electors to vote in favour of the ruling government," it added.
The party has alleged that using the contingency Fund of Bihar for the scheme, instead of passing legislation for the scheme, amounts to a violation of Article 267 of the Constitution.
"It is most respectfully submitted that the Scheme in reference was introduced on the eve of elections by a Cabinet decision without any legislative sanction and as per information of the petitioner, the budget for the Scheme was withdrawn from the Contingency Fund of the State of Bihar. Hence, the said Scheme was not part of the regular budgetary allocation, rather was withdrawn from the Contingency Fund of the State, which is in violation of Article 267 of the Constitution of India," Jan Suraaj's petition read.
In the assembly elections, the ruling NDA got 202 seats, a three-fourths majority in the 243-member House. This is the second time the NDA has crossed the 200-mark in the assembly polls. In the 2010 polls, it had won 206 seats.
Mahagathbandhan got just 35 seats with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) winning 25 seats, Congress 6, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) - CPI(ML)(L) - two, Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) - one and Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI(M) one seat.
While All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won five seats, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got one seat.
- ANI
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