ECI is in league with BJP, losing its credibility: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday (August 20, 2025) alleged that the Election Commission (ECI) has been in “league” with the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and is losing its credibility.

The AAP has announced that it will contest all 243 Bihar Assembly seats in the upcoming election, but the ECI’s statement says the party has only submitted the name of one booth-level agent (BLA). Bihar has a total of 90,712 polling booths.

Also Read | List of names deleted from Bihar draft rolls shared on district websites, says CEC

“The EC has not been updating the list of BLAs submitted by us earlier. It is in league with the BJP and giving step-motherly treatment to us while losing its credibility,” alleged AAP Bihar president Rakesh Kumar Yadav, speaking with journalists in Patna. The AAP has a very “strong” organisational base at the booth and panchayat level, and party will release its list of BLAs for all 90,712 booths within a month, he added.

‘Step-motherly treatment’

“Since our party is contesting Assembly elections for the first time in Bihar it is working properly on all fronts and we’re also taking information on the processes from the EC… Our party workers are participating regularly in every programme organised by the Election Commission, but the EC is not updating the data provided by us,” Mr. Yadav said. “The Election Commission’s partiality is clearly apparent, whether it is the Central election or the State election. The EC is giving us step-motherly treatment,” he added.

“The way EC is working, it appears it is working only for the BJP and it has come into league with the BJP. The EC is working on the ways suggested by the BJP for last few years. Whenever a complaint is being lodged with the EC for last few years, they do not look at it, and the best example has been the Delhi election,” Mr. Yadav said, referring to the recent Assembly election in Delhi, which the AAP lost to the BJP. “In Bihar, even Donald Trump and a dog have their residential certificates. There are several residences which have no addresses, and people who have 40, 42 sons. These are very shameful for the Election Commission,” the AAP State president said.

Lag in BLA appointments

According to the Election Commission’s regular release on Wednesday (August 20, 2025), the AAP has only one BLA in the State so far, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has just 74. From the ruling alliance, the BJP has 53,338 BLAs and the Janata Dal (United) has 36,550. From the Opposition, the Rashtriya Janata Dal has 47,506 BLAs, the Congress has 17,549, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation has 1,496, as of 11:00 a.m. on August 20. The State Assembly election is due to take place in October-November this year.

On March 31, the AAP State president had submitted a list to Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer, naming 38 people authorised to appoint BLAs in the districts. Most of them, however, told The Hindu that they have become party vice-presidents, or are on their way to other districts as party observers, or they simply ignored the phone calls. “Since I’ve become old, I’m not involved in party activities and reside in Patna itself. You please talk to Anil Gupta who is looking after the district,” said Mithilesh Kumar Singh, who was named on the list as the person reponsible for Bhojpur district. Mr. Gupta, however, did not pick up the phone despite several attempts.

NDA mocks AAP’s prospects

Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had recently visited Bihar and announced that his party would contest the upcoming Assembly election “independently”.

Displaying the ECI list of BLAs appointed by different parties, the ruling NDA’s leaders mocked the AAP’s claim of contesting all 243 seats in Bihar. “When they could not appoint more than one BLA till August 20 and most of the party’s newly appointed district in-charges have gone incommunicado just days ahead of the poll, how do you expect the party to perform?” asked JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar. “Can AAP leaders name only one Assembly seat out of the total 243 where they see prospects to win in the State?” he asked.