PATNA, Dec. 7 -- After several weeks of silence on the RJD's poll debacle, Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Saturday attributed the doles given by the NDA government as one of the primary reasons behind the Mahagathbandhan's defeat in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections. "Democracy has been defeated and machinery has won," Yadav said during a conversation with senior advocate Kapil Sibal on his show. The 36-year-old RJD leader, who had maintained a low profile after the defeat despite an aggressive campaign ahead of the two-phase polls, alleged that the ruling NDA "tried everything possible" to win. He claimed that enhanced allowances and new schemes announced just ahead of the elections amounted to "bribing" voters. "Around Rs.40,000 crore was directly disbursed to people under various schemes - be it the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgaar Yojana, enhanced pensions for senior citizens, farmers or other beneficiaries. This was nothing but a bribe," Yadav alleged. He also hinted at possible electoral malpractice, saying "invisible forces" may have influenced the outcome. "I can smell it. I can sense that some invisible forces did their work. Although we do not have scientific proof of EVM manipulation, I believe there will be some exposure in the future. EVMs did not want change though ballots wanted it," he said. Yadav claimed that the Mahagathbandhan secured more votes compared to the 2020 elections, with the RJD alone receiving 32 lakh additional votes. This, he said, indicated wider support across sections. The opposition leader criticised the NDA for sidestepping core issues such as employment, migration, education and industry during the campaign. "The election results are still indigestible to us," he said, adding that early trends from postal ballots had shown the alliance leading in nearly 143 seats. "People of Bihar wanted change. I could sense it during my campaign. It is surprising that the final results were so different." Yadav also questioned the timing and manner of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) carried out just before the polls, during which around 47 lakh names were deleted from the electoral rolls as "permanently shifted, dead or duplicate." He alleged that the exercise was rushed and raised doubts over its intention. "Many living people were shown as dead. The whole process raised concerns about the fairness of the polls," he said. The RJD won 25 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan secured a total of 32 in the 243-member Assembly. Yadav dismissed suggestions that internal wranglings or delays in seat-sharing contributed to the defeat. "Yes, time was consumed in seat adjustments, but similar challenges existed within the NDA too. What is more striking is how the GA, which had an early lead in postal ballot trends, began trailing once the EVM counting progressed," he said....