PATNA, Dec. 27 -- Six defeated Congress candidates from the recent Bihar assembly elections have approached the Patna high court, alleging widespread irregularities by the Election Commission of India (ECI) that they claim skewed the results in favour of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The petitioners - Pravin Singh Kushwaha (Kahalgaon), Amit Kumar Tunna (Riga), Rishi Mishra (Jale), Nalini Ranjan Jha (Benipatti), Tauquir Alam (Barari), and Shashant Shekhar (Patna Sahib) - filed the writ petition on Saturday, accusing the ECI of favouritism during a special intensive revision of voter lists, ignoring violations of the model code of conduct and manipulating outcomes through electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Their lawyer in...