Former political strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj party has approached the Supreme Court challenging the conduct of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections over what it describes as the misuse of a cash transfer scheme by the state government ahead of voting to allegedly influence voters, Bar and Bench reported on Thursday.
The petition, which sought fresh elections in the state, is likely to be heard on Friday by a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, PTI reported.
The National Democratic Alliance had bagged 202 of the state’s 243 Assembly seats on November 14, while the Opposition Mahagathbandhan won 35 seats. The Jan Suraaj had failed to win any seat despite fielding candidates in 238 constituencies.
Ahead of the polls, the state government had on October 3 transferred Rs 10,000 each to the bank accounts of women residents under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana. The scheme aims to support one woman in each family to start a small business.
At the time, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that financial assistance to the remaining women would be transferred on October 8.
The payment was among a series of welfare measures announced by Kumar in the run-up to the elections.
This came despite the Election Commission announcing the schedule for the Assembly elections in the state on October 6, when the Model Code of Conduct came into force.
The code is a set of guidelines issued by the poll panel that political parties, candidates and governments must follow during an election. It sets guardrails for speeches, campaigning, meetings, processions, election manifestos and other aspects of the polls.
In its petition in the court, the Jan Suraaj said that the cash transfer scheme was linked to the membership of JEEVIKA, a network of women’s self-help groups in the state, Bar and Bench reported.
It claimed that while about one crore women had been associated with the JEEVIKA network ahead of the Mode Code of Conduct coming into force, around 1.5 crore women eventually received the payments as per media reports.
These new beneficiaries were added and received the cash transfer when the poll code was in force, the petition claimed, adding that this amounted to “corrupt practices” that were meant to influence voters.
The Jan Suraaj sought directions to the Election Commission to take action under Article 324 of Constitution and Section 123 of the Representation of People Act against the direct transfer of money to women voters.
Article 324 vests the superintendence, direction and control of elections in India in the Election Commission, while Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act defines and enumerates “corrupt practices” in elections, including bribery, undue influence and misuse of official machinery.
The party alleged that the scheme was approved by a Cabinet decision without legislative sanction and that the funds for the scheme came from the state government’s contingency fund, which violated Article 267 of the Constitution, PTI reported.
Article 267 specifies that contingency funds at the state and Central level are meant for urgent and unforeseen expenses such as natural calamities.
The petition also urged the court to pass directions to the Election Commission to fix a minimum time, preferably six months, to implement schemes that have an impact on free and fair elections, Live Law reported.
Also read: Why Nitish Kumar’s Rs 10,000 scheme is not swaying women voters in Bihar
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