India’s main opposition party, the Congress, launched its working committee’s extended meeting in Patna on Wednesday by attacking the Narendra Modi government over issues such as the voter-list cleanup and reservation policy in a war-cry aimed at the Bihar Assembly elections, while the ruling BJP dismissed it as a political gimmick.

The Congress Working Committee is holding a meeting at Patna’s historic Sadaqat Ashram after 85 years. The Assembly polls in Bihar are likely to be held in November, and the CWC meeting signals Congress’s intent to ramp up its campaign against the BJP and consolidate its strategy in the state.

Congress president and Rajya Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the JDU-BJP government in Bihar for the state’s lackadaisical performance on socio-economic parameters.

Kharge shared excerpts from his opening remarks at the Patna meet in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

"This CWC meeting in Patna is extremely important,” he wrote in Hindi. “We are meeting at a time when India is facing a very challenging and worrying period, both at the international and national levels."

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has been heading the state for the last two decades in alliance with the BJP and the RJD-Congress at different times.

"The BJP formed the NDA government in Bihar in January 2024 by re-supporting Nitish Kumar. The Nitish Kumar government promised development, but Bihar's economy is lagging behind. The 'double engine' claim proved hollow, with no special package from the Centre," Kharge wrote.

He questioned the Centre on reservation policies.

“I want to ask the prime minister, what compels him not to secure constitutional protection for the 65 per cent reservation passed by the government for the people of Bihar? History bears witness that the Congress government granted constitutional protection to the 69 per cent reservation for the people of Tamil Nadu 30 ago. The double-engine government has failed to achieve this here," Kharge wrote.

The CWC is expected to pass key resolutions with a focus on Bihar’s election strategy, future polls and criticising the BJP over what it calls electoral malpractice and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, PTI quoted sources as saying.

"The 2025 Assembly elections will prove to be a milestone not only for Bihar but for the entire country. This will mark the beginning of the countdown and the end of the corrupt rule of the Modi government," Kharge declared.

The meeting follows Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra across Bihar and his second press conference on “vote chori,” where he accused chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who “destroyed democracy,” citing alleged deletion of Congress supporters’ votes in Karnataka.

The EC has dismissed the claims as “incorrect and baseless.”

The ruling BJP-JDU combine criticised the Congress’s decision to hold the extended meeting of the CWC in Patna as a “political gimmick”.

"The Congress party is a hopeless sinking ship and its third-rate election gimmick of convening a working committee meeting in Patna after 85 long years is as futile and pointless as polishing silverware on a sinking ship,” BJP national spokesperson C.R. Kesavan said.

“The nari shakti [women power] of Bihar is extremely upset with Rahul Gandhi's recent yatra in Bihar which can be best labelled as 'mahila badnam yatra' [malign women yatra]. The women of Bihar are extremely angry... the uncouth manner in which... from Congress, RJD platforms insulted the dignity of women during Rahul Gandhi's recent Bihar yatra.

“The Congress Working Committee today should tender an unconditional apology for insulting the dignity of women and disrespecting the women of Bihar and entire nation and for slandering and abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's late mother," Kesavan added.

Union minister of state for Defence Sanjay Seth said the Congress has accepted its defeat even before the Bihar elections.

“They cry over EVM [electronic voting machine], EC and what not. The public doesn’t take them seriously," Seth said.

JDU national spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan said The people of Bihar would not fall for Congress's gimmicks.

“The public remembers the last six decades, and the numerous instances of dual exploitation that Congress inflicted are still fresh in their minds today," Seth said.

The Congress had held a similar extended CWC meet in Telangana ahead of the Assembly polls there in 2023.

The meet concluded with a massive rally addressed by Sonia Gandhi, where the party announced “guarantees” for the state.

The Congress in alliance with the CPI won the Assembly polls, bagging 65 of the 119 seats.