Proportional representation would have made Bihar outcome different: Chidambaram

The voters in Bihar had come “pretty close” to changing the government but did not do it, Chidambaram said

After a disastrous performance in the Bihar elections, Congress on Thursday said that the outcome of the poll could have been different if India had an election process of proportional representation, instead of the “first past the post”.

The voters in Bihar came “pretty close” to changing the government but did not do so, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said, before adding that the difference between the votes polled by NDA and the Grand alliance was a mere 0.03%.

“The 0.03% difference translates into 125 (of NDA) and 110 (for Grand Alliance). That is a consequence of the winner past the post system we follow. If we had a different system like the proportional representation – the results would have been different,” the former Home Minister said.

Both Chidambaram and senior leader Jairam Ramesh, who addressed a press conference in Delhi, said the performance of the Congress in the Bihar elections is “disappointing”.

“We accept that verdict. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will review the election results and come out with the party’s statement on it,” Ramesh said.

Congress had contested in 70 seats and managed to win 19 seats, prompting allies such as the Left parties to claim that the Grand Alliance would have been in power had the Congress contested on fewer seats.

Ramesh insisted that the Bihar election results should not be seen as a rejection of the issues of unemployment, migrant worker crisis raised by the Congress and its alliance partners during the campaign.

Chidambaram said that Bihar is the poorest state in the country and the situation has not changed despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi being in power since 2014 and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has been in the saddle since 2005.