The disastrous performance of the Mahagatbandhan, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), in the Bihar Assembly elections , has been followed by claims attributing this to a purported collusion between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of India (ECI). The RJD won 25 seats, the Congress six, the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) two, and the CPI (Marxist) just one . Allegations of vote theft revolve around pre-existing concerns about the ECI’s perceived bias towards the BJP, and around the more contestable claim of manipulating electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) . The exercise raised concerns that it was moving the responsibility of proving one’s eligibility to vote to the people instead of strengthening the state and the ECI to con

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