Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh
Credit: PTI photo
New Delhi: Congress on Friday claimed that the NDA leaders wrapped up the release of its manifesto for Bihar polls in "just 26 seconds" and not allowed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to address it while RJD said its opponents have copied everything from the I.N.D.I.A bloc.
Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had just a few days ago said that young people are making reels on social media by taking advantage of cheap data while listing the achievements of the NDA government in Bihar.
Nitish Kumar, BJP president JP Nadda, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan among others released the manifesto in less than a minute and left the venue. Choudhary stayed back to answer a few questions from journalists.
"Perhaps taking inspiration from the same statement, today the NDA leaders in Bihar wrapped up the press conference for their election manifesto in just 26 seconds. In fact, it's not really their fault either -- in the last 20 years, they had nothing worthwhile to count in the name of achievements," he posted on 'X'.
He said the NDA knew very well that they were not returning to power after the elections and so discussing the manifesto and "facing the public's questions felt like a waste of time to them". He also said Nitish did not utter a single word either and possibly that he himself "hasn't even read his manifesto properly" and so he left immediately.
RJD leader and I.N.D.I.A Chief Ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav said in Patna, "they copy everything. They say they will provide 1 crore jobs. They ask me where I will generate jobs from. They should say where they will do it from."
In Patna, senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot told a press conference that the Chief Minister was "not allowed" to speak at the release of the manifesto and wondered whether Kumar was "not in a position" to talk about it. He said it was an "insult" to Bihar.
Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi had been alleging that the Nitish-led government is run through "remote control" from Delhi and the Chief Minister has lost control of the JD(U). Opposition leaders are also claiming that Nitish would not continue as Chief Minister if the NDA returns to power.