New Delhi: Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) withdrew its petition demanding fresh elections in Bihar from the Supreme Court Friday, after the court came down heavily on the party for the petition.
The petition demanded the declaration of the Bihar Assembly polls as null and void, alleging that the then-government violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by announcing welfare schemes in the state before the election. It also sought a direction from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to hold fresh, free, and fair elections in the state.
Senior Advocate C.U. Singh, arguing for the party, said that the dissemination of Rs 15,600 crore in one of the country’s most indebted states “completely upsets the level playing field”. He challenged the “MCC being disturbed across the state by virtue of the level playing field torn asunder”.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi expressed disinclination to entertain the plea, saying it seemed like a “composite election petition affecting all elections” and that the allegations would have to be proven in an election petition instead. “How many votes did your party get in the election? If people reject you, you use judicial platforms for popularity,” the bench remarked.
The SC also said that while it had been examining the broader issue of freebies, it would consider issues with the scheme in Bihar if it is challenged by a “public-spirited person”, not by a political party that had just lost an election. It also questioned why the party had not approached the Patna High Court instead.
The JSP then chose to withdraw the plea, with liberty to approach the high court.
‘Corrupt practices’
In its plea filed on 29 December, the Jan Suraaj Party alleged that the then government of Bihar “resorted to corrupt practices to induce and allure the electors to vote in its favour” by extending the benefit of Rs 10,000 each to new beneficiaries.
The party alleged that the new beneficiaries were added post-announcement of the model code of conduct in the course of the elections. The ECI, it alleged, “failed miserably to put a check on such corrupt practices” being adopted by the ruling party in the course of the election schedule. It adds that the election was, therefore, vitiated as the other contestants and parties were deprived of a level playing field.
The party contested on 242 of the total 243 seats in the Bihar assembly elections 2025, but did not win any.
The party’s petition in the Supreme Court claimed that the government had launched a statewide scheme for women known as the “Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana” just before the Bihar polls and decided to transfer Rs 10,000 to one woman in every family.
Under the scheme, women registered with a “Jeevika” self-help group are entitled to the benefit. Those who find good employment with the initial amount are promised an additional Rs two lakh.
According to the petition, the state had around 11 lakh Jeevika self-help groups and nearly one crore women registered as members, just before the announcement of the MCC.
It added that newspaper reports pegged the total beneficiaries paid under the scheme at 1.56 crore.
That, it said, implied that new beneficiaries were added during the MCC or the election process, and these beneficiaries were paid post the announcement of the election schedule and when the MCC was in force.
“(This) in itself, amply demonstrates corrupt practice adopted to unduly allure and influence the electors to vote in favour of the ruling government,” the petition submitted.
It, therefore, demanded fresh addition of beneficiaries under the scheme as well as payment to them during the MCC be declared illegal, unconstitutional, and contrary to Article 14 (equality before law), Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty), Article 112 (Union Budget), Article 202 (state budget) and Article 324 (ECI’s powers over elections) of the Constitution.
Jeevika didis as polling booth agents
The petition said that the ECI deputed Jeevika didis at polling booths on polling dates after several of them received the cash benefit under the scheme.
The deputation, the plea said, “can’t be called natural, fair and reasonable”.
“This action alone may shock the conscience of any common man to assume that such volunteers who had recently received the benefits under a Scheme, would be obviously biased in favour of the ruling Party, thereby influencing the election process and making it fair,” it alleged.
The plea also alleged that the scheme was introduced by a Cabinet decision without any legislative sanction on the eve of elections, and the party had received information that its budget was withdrawn from Bihar’s Contingency Fund.
“Hence, the said Scheme was not part of the regular budgetary allocation, but was withdrawn from the Contingency Fund of the State, which is in violation of Article 267 of the Constitution of India,” it submitted.
Article 267 allows states to establish a Contingency Fund, from which the governor can make advance payments “for the purposes of meeting unforeseen expenditure pending authorisation of such expenditure by the Legislature of the State”.
The petition blamed the ECI for failing to visualise the impact of the direct benefit transfer scheme, which, it alleged, has impacted the free and fair conduct of the 2025 Assembly election in Bihar.
In addition to seeking that the elections be declared null and void, the petition also demanded a direction to the ECI to fix a time frame, preferably six months, for the implementation of schemes by political parties in power before the announcement of the election schedule.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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