PoliticsBJP
Nitin Nabin calls Rahul Gandhi a 'puppet of a foreign toolkit gang' at Patna rally
The BJP president said the opposition was insulting the people's mandate by blaming the Election Commission, and warned that a return to paper ballots would bring back booth capturing in Bihar.
Key points
- BJP president Nitin Nabin accused Rahul Gandhi of acting as a puppet of a 'foreign toolkit gang'.
- He said a return to paper ballots could take Bihar back to 'jungle raj' and booth capturing.
- Nabin said the BJP would answer the opposition 'from the streets to Parliament'.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Nabin used a rally in Patna on Saturday to launch one of his sharpest attacks yet on Rahul Gandhi, accusing the Leader of the Opposition of acting as “a puppet of a foreign toolkit gang” and of working against India’s national interest.
Speaking in his home state, Nabin said Gandhi and his team could not accept the progress India had made under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and were trying to damage the country’s image as a growing economy. “The 140 crore people of India are watching everything,” he said.
His speech came at the end of a week in which the opposition, student groups and the Cockroach Janta Party have kept up protests in Delhi and elsewhere against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
“Insulting the mandate”
Nabin said the opposition, and the Congress in particular, was blaming electoral institutions for its own defeats. “The opposition, especially the Congress, is insulting the people’s mandate by holding the electoral bodies responsible for its defeat,” he said.
He pointed to what he called a pattern. Opposition parties that win in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Keralam raise no complaint about the Election Commission, he said, but turn on it after losing in Bihar and West Bengal.
He also asked how many opposition leaders had filed complaints after the SIR in Bihar was completed and the final roll was published on 30 September 2025.
Ballot papers and “jungle raj”
The BJP chief took aim at the demand for a return to paper ballots, which the INDIA bloc parties have taken up in recent weeks. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said all the alliance partners agree that elections should be held with ballot papers instead of electronic voting machines, and the DMK’s MPs resolved on Saturday to ask the President for paper ballots and full counting of VVPAT slips.
Nabin said going back to ballot papers could push Bihar back to “jungle raj” and booth capturing.
He said the BJP would fight “anti-national elements” and answer the opposition’s “baseless” charges “from the streets to Parliament”. While the world was going through one crisis after another, he added, India was staying on its path of development.
What comes next
The two sides are heading for more confrontation on the streets. Delhi Police have cleared the Congress to hold a large rally at Ramlila Maidan on 1 November, and farmer, worker and student groups plan district-level protests across the country against the SIR on 23 October.
The Congress had not responded to Nabin’s remarks by late Saturday night.