INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Patna: RJD's Tejashwi Yadav was on Thursday elected the leader of the Grand Alliance legislature party and promptly hit out at the NDA,
claiming it won the assembly elections through "deceit".Addressing a press conference, Yadav mocked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U)
has been relegated to the third position in terms of seat tally, and wondered whether the latter would "heed his conscience and give up his
NDA fold in 2017 after Tejashwi's name had cropped up in a money laundering case
Kumar had then said he was stepping down after heeding his conscience (atma ki awaaz).Yadav claimed the people's mandate was for a change
but it was manipulated."It was undoubtedly a mandate for change
The NDA won by dhan, bal and chhal (money, muscle power and deceit," he alleged.Asked whether the Mahagathbandhan would try to muster
numbers to form its own government, he said, "We will go to the people who gave the mandate
Mahagathbandhan."How can it convert into their victory in 15 more seats than us? We believe that had the counting of votes been fair, we
would have returned with a tally of more than 130 seats," said Yadav, whose coalition has won 110 seats, 12 less than the magic figure of
The NDA clinched 125 seats.He said his alliance will write to the Election Commission and point out the "discrepancies"."In so many
constituencies, postal ballots were counted in the end and not at the beginning of counting which is the norm
offset the support we had received from a large number of servicemen who were moved by our commitment to one rank, one pension scheme
We demand recounting of postal ballots in all such constituencies and the process be videographed," Yadav asserted.The 31-year-old former
deputy chief minister alleged that errant polling officials had acted like a "prakoshth" (cell) of the BJP, and replied in the affirmative
