Congress Leader At Centre Of PM Abuse Row Gets Bihar Ticket: Sources

The Congress is bracing for fresh controversy over its choice of candidate for the Jale constituency for the 2025 Bihar assembly elections. The party has fielded young leader Mohammad Naushad from Jale in Darbhanga district, sources said, two months after abusive language was used at his rally against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's late mother. He will file his nomination today.

Jale had been at the centre of a Congress-RJD tussle for the November 6 election; the results will be declared on November 14. Jivesh Mishra, the BJP candidate who has won the seat the last two times, is a minister in the Nitish Kumar government.

A local court will hear Naushad's bail request in the abuse case tomorrow.

Naushad's name first emerged during Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar after abusive language was used against PM Modi's late mother from the stage of his event in Darbhanga in August.

A furious BJP hit back at the Congress, saying the people of Bihar will never forgive Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi, who was in Bihar for his Voter Adhikar Yatra, was passing through the area at that time. He wasn't scheduled to, and neither did he make a stop at the rally.

The Prime Minister later condemned the incident as "deeply saddening, painful, and distressing." Home Minister Amit Shah called it a "stain on our democracy."

The Congress defended itself with a party spokesperson claiming that "BJP agents" had "infiltrated" the event. Pawan Khera claimed the incident was the handiwork of the BJP to divert people's attention from Gandhi's Bihar yatra.

The Jale candidacy had sparked controversy last election as well, after the Congress fielded Mashkoor Usmani, a former president of the Aligarh Muslim University Students Union. The BJP alleged Usmani had supported the display of a portrait of Mohammad Ali Jinnah at the university. This ended up harming the Congress-RJD alliance's prospects across the Mithila region.