Alleging ‘illegal practices’, Prashant Kishor-led Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bihar Assembly elections, 2025, in which his party drew a blank despite contesting 238 of the total 243 seats.The JSP’s petition seeking fresh polls in the state is likely to come up for hearing on Friday before a Bench led by CJI Surya Kant. The party has challenged the direct transfer of Rs 10,000 each to a large number of women voters in the state while the model code of conduct (MCC) was allegedly in force.It amounted to “corrupt practices” as it was meant to unduly influence voters in favour of the ruling alliance, the petitioner alleged, adding the direct cash transfer deprived other political parties of a level-playing field and struck at the core requirement of free and fair elections.The Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana provides an initial financial grant of Rs 10,000 to women entrepreneurs to launch small businesses and promote self-employment and women’s empowerment in Bihar.The JSP urged the top court to direct the Election Commission to take action under Article 324 of Constitution (EC’s power of superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections) and Section 123 of the Representation of People Act against the direct transfer of money to women voters in Bihar.The JSP said the eligibility for the scheme was linked to membership of JEEVIKA, a network of women’s self-help groups. The state announced that women not already part of JEEVIKA could enrol to receive the benefit.While around one crore women were already associated with JEEVIKA before the MCC came into force, newspaper reports later showed that 1.56 crore women eventually received payments, the party submitted.It also alleged that women, who were beneficiaries of the scheme, were deployed at polling booths on voting days in both phases of polling, even though many of them had already received the cash benefit, the party said, adding such deployment compromised the neutrality expected during the elections.The party has further alleged that the distribution of money was approved by a Cabinet decision without any legislative sanction and money was withdrawn from the State’s Contingency Fund, allegedly in violation of Article 267.It pointed out that the EC’s earlier directions on MCC prohibited governments from announcing or expanding welfare schemes, releasing fresh funds or processing beneficiary-oriented programmes once elections were announced, if such steps were likely to influence voters.The impact of a direct cash transfer scheme rolled out on the eve of elections and continued during the MCC, could not have been ignored by the poll panel, it submitted.