BJP files complaint against Rahul Gandhi over derogatory remarks

The party urged the Election Commission to issue a show-cause notice to Gandhi, direct him to offer an unconditional public apology and bar him from campaigning for a specified duration to uphold the sanctity of democratic and electoral norms. According to the complaint, during his address, Rahul Gandhi said, "Before elections, if 200 people from the crowd ask PM Modi to dance on stage in return for votes, he would start dancing. PM Modi will start performing Bharatnatyam on stage for votes." The BJP argued that such statements lower the dignity of the Prime Minister's office and set a poor precedent in public discourse during elections.

Earlier on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will "pay the price" for his recent remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and for insulting 'Chhathi Maiya' and her devotees. Reacting to Gandhi’s comment that Prime Minister Modi would "even dance" for votes, Shah, during an interview with News18 Network, said, "Rahul Gandhi will have to pay the price for this in the elections. Rahul spoke about Modi in a derogatory manner and insulted his mother, but every time he has done this, the lotus has bloomed from the mud of lowered standards."

'NDA govt strangled aspirations of youth in Bihar'

Notably, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the "Modi-Nitish" government has strangled the aspirations of the youth in Bihar, left the state abandoned and pushed it into an abyss on every development parameter. Gandhi asserted that now is the time for change and to reaffirm the Mahagathbandhan's resolve for justice. He made the remarks in a post on X, accompanied by a video of his interaction with Bihar's youth recently. "A few days ago, I had a very interesting conversation with the youth of Bihar on -- education, health, employment -- every issue. And, there is only one culprit responsible for the deplorable state on all these counts -- the BJP-JDU government," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said in his post in Hindi.

Bihar Assembly Elections 2025

Earlier this month, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Bihar Assembly elections. The 243 Assembly seats will go to the polls in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with the counting of votes scheduled to take place on November 14. The NDA led by the BJP and JD(U) will be up against the I.N.D.I.A bloc, led by Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, the Congress, the CPI (ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the CPI, the CPM, and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP). The new entrant, Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj, has also fielded candidates on all 243 seats of the state.