Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge sounded the poll bugle in Bihar on Wednesday, as the Congress Working Committee (CWC) held its first meeting here since Independence. The CWC meeting comes ahead of the Bihar Legislative Assembly Election due in the next few weeks.
In his opening remarks at the Extended CWC meeting being held at the party’s Bihar headquarters at Sadaqat Asharam here, Kharge claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has become a burden for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) internal strife in the state is now out in the open.
The Congress president claimed the 2025 Bihar Assembly election will turn out to be the start of the end of Modi government’s ‘corrupt rule’. “The people of Bihar do not want BJP’s religious polarisation; they want development-focused politics,” he further said.
Kharge alleged that the country was dealing with many issues like unemployment, social polarisation, and weakening of constitutional institutions.
“Today, our country is facing many problems. These problems are economic recession, unemployment, social polarisation, and autonomous constitutional institutions are being weakened by targeting them,” the senior Congress leader claimed.
‘Vote chori conspiracy’
“On the lines of Bihar, now a conspiracy is being hatched to cut the votes of lakhs of people across the country. Vote theft means theft of ration, pension, medicine, children’s scholarship of Dalits, tribals, backward, most backward, minority, weak, and poor. People have come out openly in support of Rahul Gandhi ji during ‘Voter Rights Yatra’,” he claimed, reiterating the Congress’s vote theft charge against the Election Commission.
Kharge alleged that the poll panel was running away from the issue by asking for affidavits from the Congress party instead of answering questions on revelations being made across the states.
Serious questions are being raised about the fairness and transparency of the Election Commission of India, he stated.
Modi’s ‘diplomatic failure’
The Congress leader also slammed the Modi government for the alleged failure of its foreign policy, alleging the problems that India is facing at the international level are a result of the ‘diplomatic failure’ of PM Narendra Modi.
The very friends whom PM boasts about as ‘my friends’ are today putting India in numerous troubles, Kharge said in reference to US President Donald Trump, apparently over the tariff issue and H-1B visa fee hike.
“We are meeting when India is going through a very challenging period at both international and national levels,” the Congress chief was reported as saying at the CWC meeting in Patna.
The Congress is holding its CWC in Patna with an aim to discuss the state poll strategy. It has made allegations of ‘vote chori’ against the BJP. This is the party’s first working committee meeting in Bihar in the post-Independence era.
The meeting is being attended by former party president and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and other senior party leaders, including KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, and Sachin Pilot.