Kharge hits out at Nitish; Rahul Gandhi warns against BJP-RSS ideology

As Bihar’s poll fever gathers momentum, the Congress on Monday, 27 October, turned up the heat on both its chief rival and its estranged former ally.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge launched a blistering attack on chief minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of putting power before people, while Rahul Gandhi sharpened his ideological offensive against the BJP and RSS, warning that their politics was “dragging India down a dangerous path”.

Addressing a rally amid the rising hum of campaign slogans and fluttering party flags, Kharge tore into the JD(U) leader’s long political journey marked by shifting alliances. “Nitish Kumar doesn’t care about the people, he only loves the chair,” Kharge thundered, his voice rising above the crowd’s chants. “For him, politics is not about service, it’s about survival. Bihar deserves a government that stands by its people, not one that changes colours for convenience.”

The Congress chief’s remarks come as Nitish Kumar, the state’s longest-serving chief minister, faces criticism for his repeated flip-flops between alliances, from the UPA to the NDA and back, and again to the NDA, a political zigzag that has often drawn accusations of opportunism.

On the same campaign trail, Rahul Gandhi took aim at the ruling BJP, framing the ongoing election as an ideological battle for the country’s soul. “The BJP-RSS ideology is taking the country down the path to ruin,” he said, addressing a gathering packed with tricolour banners. “They want to divide India, to pit one community against another. But the Congress will not let that happen, we will stand firm, united, and fearless.”

Rahul’s speech, laced with emotional appeal and nationalist imagery, underscored the Congress’s attempt to revive its moral and ideological pitch in the Hindi heartland — positioning itself as the voice of harmony against what it calls the BJP’s politics of polarization.

The twin barbs from Kharge and Gandhi came on a day when senior Congress leaders fanned out across Bihar to rally support for the INDIA bloc, which is trying to counter the NDA’s formidable campaign machinery. The party’s strategy, sources said, revolves around consolidating anti-BJP votes while projecting Tejashwi Yadav as the youthful face of change.

Kharge’s pointed remarks about Nitish Kumar’s “chair obsession” were also seen as a calibrated move to differentiate the Congress within the alliance — a reminder of its independent identity even as it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with regional partners.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders dismissed the Congress’s attacks as “empty rhetoric”. A senior party spokesperson quipped that “the Congress should first win its own seats before lecturing others on governance and ideology,” adding that “Nitish Kumar’s record of development and stability will speak louder than their speeches.”

As rallies stretch into the night and campaign caravans roll through the plains of Bihar, one thing is clear — the rhetoric is only getting sharper, the fault lines deeper.

With Kharge and Rahul Gandhi turning the spotlight on Nitish’s ambitions and the BJP’s ideology, the Congress is seeking to script its comeback narrative — one that pits conviction against convenience, and ideology against power.