Nitin Nabin says ‘time has come to decisively defeat’ Oppn, accuses Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi of insulting Bihar mandate

Bhagalpur, Bihar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Nitin Nabin on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Opposition, accusing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav of insulting the democratic mandate of Bihar. The BJP chief alleged that they were questioning constitutional institutions after being rejected by the people.

Leading the 'Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao' march in Bhagalpur, Nabin said the time had come to decisively defeat Opposition leaders, alleging that the Congress and RJD had failed to raise objections during the prescribed process of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and were now spreading misinformation.

"The message that emerges from this sacred soil of democracy in Bihar signals that the time has come to decisively defeat these opposition figures. If the Congress party still refuses to learn, the public will teach them such a lesson, ensuring their utter defeat, that, in the future, there will be no one left to even mention the name of the Congress," Nabin said.

He further accused Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav of disrespecting the mandate given by the people of Bihar, saying that questioning the electoral verdict amounted to insulting the people themselves.

"I have come before you today because the people of Bihar deserve to know that the mandate they gave, the democratic verdict they delivered, is currently being insulted by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi. To insult this mandate is to insult the people of Bihar themselves," he said.

Targeting the Congress and RJD over their criticism of the SIR exercise, Nabin said a 60-day window was provided for filing claims and objections regarding the addition or deletion of names from voter lists. He alleged that the two parties failed to utilise the opportunity to raise their concerns.

"Today, as the BJP and the NDA alliance hold a padyatra across the country to safeguard democracy, the opposition, who were seen yesterday at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, were busy sowing seeds of lies. The SIR exercise began right here in Bihar, and yesterday, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was busy propagating a long string of such falsehoods," he said.

"There is a formal procedure for this: a full 60-day window is provided for filing claims and objections regarding the addition or deletion of names from the voter list. The Congress and RJD, however, were so short of party workers that no one even came forward to file a complaint. Instead of utilising the opportunities available at every level to raise concerns, they chose to shed crocodile tears, and once the entire SIR process was completed, they were left with nothing more to say," Nabin added.

He further alleged that the Opposition failed to raise its concerns either in legislative chambers or before the public and faced the consequences in the 2025 elections.

Targeting the Opposition parties across several states, Nabin named Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar, Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, alleging that after being rejected by voters, they had turned to questioning the country's constitutional institutions.

Questioning the Congress over its electoral setbacks, Nabin said the party should have learnt from its defeat in 2014 to avoid facing another major setback in 2019.

"I ask: why do you not learn from your own failures? Had you learned from your failure in 2014, you would not have faced such a defeat in 2019. Our success in 2019, and again in 2024, was not brought about by any individual like Gyanesh Kumar; it was the people of this nation who granted us victory," he said.

Nabin maintained that the BJP's electoral victories in 2019 and 2024 were driven by public support and the party's focus on development, public welfare and national security. "And why did the people choose us? Because we made development our agenda. We made public welfare our agenda. We made national security our agenda," he said. (ANI)