NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday launched a sharp attack on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP during a rally in Buxar, calling their alliance “opportunistic” and accusing Kumar of frequently switching sides solely to hold onto power.
“Nitish Kumar changes parties just for ‘kursi’. He has once again joined hands with the same ideology that was responsible for Mahatma Gandhi’s death,” Kharge said.
The Congress chief accused the BJP-JD(U) government of failing Bihar’s people and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to deliver on his 2015 promise of a Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package for the state. “People of Bihar must ask, where is that money? Modi ji is running a factory of lies,” Kharge said. He also alleged that the BJP and RSS were against the poor, women, and marginalised communities, claiming that their policies are designed to divide society along caste and religious lines.
Referring to the recent Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Kharge claimed it was another example of BJP-RSS conspiracies to polarise communities. “It is a deliberate attempt to create a wedge between groups,” he said, while urging people to see through what he described as misleading narratives.
Kharge also invoked Bihar’s rich legacy, saying it was the land of enlightenment and struggle — from Buddha’s penance to Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha in Champaran. “Many great leaders, reformers, and freedom fighters came from this soil. Now, we are here with the ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan’ rally, saluting the spirit of Bihar,” he said.
His visit comes just months ahead of the assembly elections, where the Congress, in alliance with the RJD and Left parties under the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, is set to challenge the BJP-led NDA. Kharge’s rally followed Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Begusarai earlier this month, where he also criticised the Centre during a ‘Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan’ and marched under the banner of ‘Palayan Roko, Naukri Do’.
