Rekha Gupta’s Bihar debut marred by gaffe, fiery Oppn attack follows

The political winds sweeping through Bihar carried a touch of drama and irony on Wednesday, as Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta made her grand entry into the state’s high-octane poll campaign — only to find herself tripping up on her very first step.

At a blazing midday rally in Muzaffarpur, Gupta — the BJP’s only woman chief minister among its 14 states and a relative newcomer to national politics — sought to ignite the crowd with a fiery indictment of past governments. Yet her words, brimming with conviction, appeared to turn against her own camp.

“I want to ask, why has Bihar suffered for so many years?” she thundered. “It’s because the previous governments cared only about their families, not the poor people of Bihar. Why did Bihar’s youth have to leave their homes to earn a living?”

The statement, captured in a PTI video that quickly ricocheted across social media, sent murmurs rippling through the audience and amusement through political circles. For the better part of the last two decades, Bihar has been governed by the NDA, with Nitish Kumar at the helm for nearly 19 years and Jitan Ram Manjhi briefly stepping in — during which the BJP has been either ruling or sharing power.

By dusk, as her words dominated news tickers and television chatter, Gupta sought to steady the ship. Facing reporters, she redirected her attack at the Opposition, her tone now sharp and deliberate.

Taking aim at Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, she accused the Mahagathbandhan of “stooping to any level for votes”, even “belittling the nation” and “launching personal attacks.”

“They think they can deceive the people of Bihar,” she said with renewed confidence. “But a Bihari may be innocent, never naïve. They know who has delivered development — they’ve seen it under the NDA.”

Her words, now tempered and tactful, resonated more deeply with the crowd. She invoked the familiar notes of national pride, women’s empowerment, and progress, casting herself as the fresh, unflinching face of a party promising continuity with a touch of renewal.

Even as Gupta sought to reclaim her footing, the political spotlight shifted to another war of words — this one between Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Union home minister Amit Shah.

Earlier, Shah had lamented at a rally that there was “no land left for industries in Bihar”, blaming the Opposition for the state’s industrial stagnation.

Gandhi’s retort, laced with bite, was swift. “When Adani wants it, land is snatched from farmers and given to him for just Re 1,” he wrote on X, accusing the BJP of hypocrisy and crony capitalism. “There is no land for industries — unless it’s for Adani.”

The Congress leader, who has long wielded his 'Adani–Ambani model' critique as a symbol of alleged corporate favoritism, used the moment to reinforce his narrative that the NDA serves “a select few at the cost of farmers and the youth”.

As Bihar braces for two crucial phases of voting on 6 and 11 November, with counting on 14 November, the twin exchanges — Gupta’s early misstep and Gandhi’s counterfire — encapsulate the electric unpredictability of the state’s political theatre, where rhetoric can both raise and raze reputations overnight.

Gupta’s itinerary remains ambitious: over the next two days, she will campaign across Bochahan, Danapur, Patna Sahib, Madhubani, and Dinara, blending the dust of rural rallies with the pulse of urban constituencies.

But as the first day of her Bihar journey showed, every word in this campaign carries the weight of consequence. In a land where politics is both performance and persuasion, even a fleeting fumble can echo longer than a fiery speech.