Congress mocks NDA’s ‘26-second’ Bihar manifesto launch, says ruling alliance afraid to face questions

Taking a swipe at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over its manifesto launch for the Bihar Assembly election on Friday (October 31, 2025), the Congress claimed that the ruling coalition had wrapped up its press conference in “just 26 seconds”.

The Opposition party claimed that the NDA’s leaders know they are “not returning to power” and therefore found it a “waste of time” to answer the public’s questions.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh remarked that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not utter a single word at the event, suggesting 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 are making social media reels thanks to cheap data, Mr. Ramesh remarked, “Perhaps taking inspiration from that, NDA leaders too wrapped up their press conference in just 26 seconds.”

‘Waste of time’

“In fact, it is not really their fault — in the last 20 years, they had nothing worthwhile to count in the name of achievement. They also know very well that they are not returning to power after the election, so discussing the manifesto and facing the public’s questions felt like a waste of time to them,” Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X.

Senior 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 merely 26 seconds. They were afraid to face questions from journalists on the manifesto as well as on their governance,” Mr. Gehlot said in Patna.

At the brief event, Mr. Kumar and his deputy Samrat Choudhary, BJP president J.P. Nadda, and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan unveiled the manifesto. Only the Deputy Chief Minister stayed back to take questions.