The Congress, JD(U) and the RJD leaders met the Chief Election Commissioner on Monday and complained that the BJP was “exporting” workers from Bihar to various States to train them ahead of the elections, and it had been using the railways to transport them.
Accusing the BJP of violating the model code of conduct the parties asked the CEC to cancel four trains that had been allegedly booked by the BJP from Patna to Bhopal, Jaipur, Mumbai and Raipur.
Alliance leaders CP Joshi, Randeep Singh Surjewala, KC Tyagi, Pavan K Varma, Manoj Jha and Rajya Sabha MP KTS Tulsi said in the petition that the railways had granted 60 per cent concession to the cost of booking of four special trains from Patna to various BJP-ruled States. “The trains consisting of 18 coaches with 72 passengers each are being used by the BJP to take their party workers for training and to utilise them for electoral work, and as voters, in the Bihar elections,” the leaders told reporters on Monday. They added that the concession was permitted after elections were declared.
The parties demanded immediate cancellation of the trains, withdrawal of the purported concession and a probe into the collusion of railway employees and the BJP.