In this picture released on Oct. 31, 2025, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge speaks with senior party leader Jairam Ramesh at a press conference in New Delhi. | Photo credit: PTI
Taking a swipe at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to launch its manifesto for the Bihar Assembly elections on Friday (October 31, 2025), the Congress said the ruling coalition wrapped up the press conference in “just 26 seconds”.
The opposition party claimed that the NDA leaders knew that they were “not coming back to power” and therefore considered it a “waste of time” to answer questions from the public.
Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh noted that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not speak a single word at the event and suggested that “it is possible that he himself has not even read his manifesto properly”.
Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent claim that Bihar’s youth were creating social media circles thanks to cheap data, Mr. Ramesh remarked, “Perhaps the NDA leaders ended the press conference in just 26 seconds, inspired by that.”
‘waste of time’
“Actually, it’s not their fault – they haven’t had anything worth counting in the name of success in the last 20 years. They also know very well that they don’t come back to power after elections, so discussing the manifesto and facing public questions seemed like a waste of time,” Mr Ramesh said in a post on X.
Congress leader Ashok Gehlot also slammed the NDA, alleging that Mr Kumar was “not allowed” to speak at the manifesto release, calling it an “insult to Bihar”. “The NDA leaders came to a press conference that lasted just 26 seconds. They were afraid to face questions from journalists about the manifesto as well as their governance,” Mr. Gehlot said in Patna.
At a short event, Mr Kumar and his deputy Samrat Choudhary, BJP president JP Nadda and union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan unveiled the manifesto. Only the deputy minister stayed back to ask questions.
Published – 31 Oct 2025 21:46 IST
