'Rahul Gandhi was on a picnic while elections were in full swing': RJD slams Congress over MGB's defeat in Bihar

Blaming Congress for Mahagathbandhan's poor performance in the recently concluded Bihar elections, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Shivanand Tiwari on Sunday said that while elections were in full swing, Rahul Gandhi was on a picnic at Priyanka Gandhi's place in Shimla.

"Elections were in full swing and Rahul Gandhi was on a picnic at Priyanka ji's place in Shimla. Is party run like that? Allegations can be leveled that manner in which Congress is being run, it's benefitting BJP," the RJD leader said.

He went on to say that Congress became a shackle for the Mahagathbandhan, adding that the party is only concerned about contesting on seats and not winning them.

"They had fielded 70 candidates but didn't hold even 70 public rallies. Rahul Gandhi came here for three days and held two rallies in a day, whereas PM Modi being 10-15 years older than Rahul Gandhi, held three to four rallies. What is this...Priyanka Gandhi didn't even come," Tiwari said.

Notably, Congress party, which lost the Bihar elections by a huge margin, has alleged that EVMs the state were hacked by BJP. It managed to win only 19 of the 70 contested seats in the state with a strike rate of 27 percent, the poorest of all other allies in the Grand Alliance, signaling its leaders to raise their fingers.

The NDA has secured a 125-seat majority in the 243-seat strong Bihar Legislative Assembly of which BJP won on 74 seats, JD(U) on 43 while eight seats were won by two other NDA constituents. The RJD, on the other hand, emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats while the Congress only won 19 of the 70 seats it had contested on.

Meanwhile, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar will take oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the fourth straight term on Monday afternoon after closely-fought legislative assembly elections in the state.

Nitish Kumar, after meeting Governor Phagu Chauhan to stake claim to form NDA government in Bihar, had on Sunday announced that the oath-taking, as well as the swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet, will be held at around 4.30 pm on Monday.