Congress Smells Blood in Bihar, Takes Aim at ‘Brand Modi’

The Congress seems emboldened to raise heat on Brand Modi after finding that the Bihar Bandh call had failed to enthuse even the B JP workers in the state.

By MANISH ANAND

NEW DELHI, September 12, 2025 — The Bihar unit of the Congress revealed its bold intent to take a direct attempt at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wont of playing emotional cards in elections. The party unit in Bihar released a 36-second AI video to take on ‘Brand Modi’, with his mother late Heeraben appearing in a dream to castigate him for “employing her for election purposes.”

With 3.2 million views on X, the AI video has political actors in crosshairs. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spin masters have sought to portray the Congress as a party lacking in decorum. Former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav claimed to have not seen the video at all.

The AI video hit the social media trends in the wake of the BJP calling a Bihar Bandh against “insult to Modi’s mother” during the yatra taken out by leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the state. Gandhi criss-crossed the state with the slogan “vote chor, gaddi chhor.”

Gandhi’s yatra pitchforked the Congress at the centre stage of Bihar politics as an aggressive Opposition outfit. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had so far been unable to show the aggression of the scale of the Congress against the Prime Minister.

The Congress seems to have sized up Bihar politics ahead of the Assembly elections in November this year. The Opposition outfit appears convinced that the Prime Minister is the sole roadblock in the Mahagathbandhan seizing power in Patna. The Congress also appears to have taken encouragement from an all-out attack by Prashant Kishor, election strategist turned politician. Kishor has been aiming at the Prime Minister by raising opinions of the people in the state against the project announcement spree by Modi.

With the Bihar unit of the BJP facing a first poll test in several years without Sushil Kumar Modi, the saffron outfit is seen vulnerable in the state. None of the two deputy chief ministers in Bihar, from the ranks of the BJP, command familiarity across the state. If not for the Prime Minister, the BJP could even face a crisis to build the campaign in the state and may once again give out a sense of the 2015 state elections when outsiders had sought to manage the Bihar elections.

The Congress seems emboldened to raise heat on Brand Modi after finding that the Bihar Bandh call had failed to enthuse even the B JP workers in the state.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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