Patna (Bihar) [India], November 15 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Jaiswal on Saturday strongly criticised Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over his remarks blaming "vote chori" for the Mahagathbandhan's poor performance in the Bihar Assembly elections, stating, "This country will never accept someone who doesn't speak of the nation."
Jaiswal added that the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha continues to lack "maturity and seriousness" in his statements and urged him to demonstrate a clear stand against terrorism, anti-national forces, and insurgency to gain the trust of the electorate.
Addressing ANI, Jaiswal asserted that Gandhi will not be able to earn the confidence of the country's voters unless he openly opposes terrorism, anti-national forces and insurgency.
"Rahul Gandhi should look within his conscience. Until you prove to the common people of this country that he opposes terrorism, opposes anti-national forces, and opposes insurgency, he won't be able to make a place for himself in the voters of this country; until he openly speaks of nationalism. This country will never accept someone who doesn't speak of the nation. Rahul Gandhi has still not matured. He still doesn't have seriousness in his words," Jaiswal told ANI.
Following the Mahagathbandhan's heavy defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi visited Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in New Delhi. The meeting is expected to focus on evaluating the party's poor performance in the state.
Earlier on Friday, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Bihar Assembly election was "unfair from the beginning" after the party failed to secure double digits despite contesting on 61 seats. In the 2020 Bihar elections, the Congress party won 19 out of the 70 seats it contested.
Congress' troubles in Bihar persisted in the 2025 polls, with the party winning only six of the 60 seats it contested--an unimpressive conversion rate of less than 10 per cent. Their ally in the Mahagathbandhan, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), secured just 25 seats, bringing the alliance's total to 35 in the 243-member Assembly.
Meanwhile, the NDA registered a historic landslide victory in the 2025 Bihar Elections, winning 202 of the 243 seats in the state. The ruling alliance secured a three-fourths majority in the 243-member House. This is the second time the NDA has crossed the 200 mark in the assembly polls. In the 2010 polls, it had won 206 seats.
In the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 89 seats, Janata Dal (United) won 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJPRV) won 19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS) won five, and Rashtriya Lok Morcha won four seats.
Other Mahagathbandhan parties, including Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) - CPI(ML)(L), Indian Inclusive Party (IIP) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI(M) secured two, one and one seats respectively. All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won five seats, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got one seat.
The Bihar assembly elections were conducted across two phases on November 6 and 11, respectively. Bihar recorded a historic 67.13% voter turnout, the highest since 1951, with women voters outpacing men (71.6% vs 62.8%).