Kharge remark in Patna: why the BJP planned nationwide protests on 26 October

What happened at the Patna event

The incident took place on Sunday, 25 October 2026, during a Congress programme at Bapu Sabhagar in Patna marking the birth anniversary of Bihar's first chief minister, Sri Krishna Singh. Kharge was speaking about alleged electoral irregularities and criticising the government over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls when a person in the audience interjected, according to reporting of the event.

Reporting of the exchange says the audience member was heard saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not go anywhere. Kharge responded with the Hindi remark reported as “Modi ka baap bhi jayega”, translated in reporting as “Even Modi's father will go.” One report says he repeated the remark twice. The remark, and the translation, are reported accounts of what was said on stage, and the exact wording remains a matter for the video and other evidence that the complainant asked police to examine.

The man who interjected was identified in reporting as Santosh Kumar. He was reported to have been surrounded, beaten and removed from the hall, and he later said outside the venue that he had not intended to heckle Kharge. According to that account, Kumar said he had meant that Modi would not leave unless there was a revolt, and that only part of his sentence had been heard. Those two accounts of the exchange are in tension, which is why this article reports the interruption and the response as reported, rather than as a settled account of intent.

The BJP response and the Patna complaint

BJP leaders reacted sharply on 25 October. BJP president Nitin Nabin was reported as describing Kharge's language as indecent and unparliamentary and as reflecting what he called the Congress's ideological bankruptcy, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah was reported as saying Kharge had crossed all limits of political decorum. Bihar leaders, including a demand for an apology reported from the state's leadership, also criticised the remark.

Separately, a BJP state working committee member, Krishna Kumar, filed a complaint at Patna's Kotwali police station, according to an IANS report. The complaint sought an investigation and asked police to examine news reports, video footage and other evidence to establish the exact words and context, and to take appropriate legal action if the investigation established that any law had been violated. A complaint seeking investigation is not, by itself, a finding that an offence was committed, and no court outcome is reported in the pages opened for this article.

The BJP's criticism also went beyond the single remark. Its leaders accused the Congress of turning a policy debate into personal attacks, while Kharge's Patna speech itself had focused on the voter-roll revision, with a demand that the exercise be stopped and elections conducted using ballot papers. Keeping those two threads apart matters: the policy dispute over the electoral roll revision is separate from the row over the language used on stage.

What was planned for 26 October, and what remains open

On 26 October 2026, the BJP planned nationwide protests against Kharge's remarks, with demonstrations reported as planned at state headquarters across the country and state units instructed to hold peaceful but firm protests in front of state party offices. Senior BJP leaders were also reported as demanding an unconditional apology from Kharge. Those protests were announced plans at the time of reporting, not completed events, and their scale and conduct would need to be checked against reporting from 26 October itself.

For readers following the story, three questions remain open. First, what exactly was said and in what context, which the Patna complaint asks police to establish from evidence. Second, whether the police complaint leads to any further legal step. Third, whether the row stays a war of words and protests, or changes the debate over the voter-roll revision that Kharge was originally addressing. None of those outcomes should be assumed from the initial reports alone.

Editorial disclosure

This article was researched and published with AI assistance. No human prepublication review is claimed. Report factual errors through our contact page.