No attack reported after ex-Congress MP flags threat to Patna, Madhubani residences

Amid fissures among party leaders in the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee after the party, while contesting 61 seats, won just six in the 243-member Assembly elections recently, former three-term MLA, two-time MP, and Union Minister Shakeel Ahmad on Monday (January 26, 2026) apprehended that there could be an attack on him and his residences in Patna and Madhubani the next day. However, no such attack was reported at either place on Tuesday (January 27, 2026).

Earlier, on Saturday (January 24, 2026), Mr. Ahmad had called party leader Rahul Gandhi a “coward and insecure” politician who, he alleged, promotes young leaders who sing paeans within the party. The former Congress leader had resigned from the party in November 2025.

“Just now, some Congress colleagues secretly informed me that the Congress leadership has directed the Bihar Congress/youth Congress wing to carry out attack on my residences in Patna and Madhubani on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) under the pretext of burning an effigy. This is against the principles of democracy,” Mr. Ahmad said in a post on social media late at night on Monday (January 26, 2026).

Later, speaking to media persons, Mr. Ahmad added that he had received multiple phone calls from friends in the Congress party who told him that party workers had been asked to carry out an attack on him and his residences. Mr. Ahmad also blamed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for being “behind such directions to carry out attack on his residences”. “It is very obvious that Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi is behind such orders given to Bihar Congress and youth leaders,” he alleged.

Soon after, he further shared a screenshot of a WhatsApp group chat in his social media post in which a person, whom Mr. Ahmad claimed was a Bihar Youth Congress leader, had asked other group members to burn effigies of Mr. Ahmad and oppose him with “much force at the direction top party leadership”. He said his “information were proven right”. He also thanked his old friends in the Congress party with an adage, “only old friends come forward to help”, and asked further, “is it happening without an order from Rahul ji?”.

Earlier, on Saturday, Mr. Ahmad, while speaking on a news platform, had called Rahul Gandhi a “coward and insecure politician who promotes young leaders who sing paeans to him in the party”. He later alleged that the “future of Congress party depends on future of Narendra Modi”. “When Modi will fall and fail, Congress will automatically come into power as the party is currently at number two position. Earlier, it [Congress party] was at number one and BJP was at number two position but today it is vice versa, Rahul Gandhi thinks so”, Mr. Ahmad alleged, while calling Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge a puppet.

Mr. Ahmad has been a three-time Congress MLA from the Bisfi constituency in Madhubani district of north Bihar and a two-term MP from Madhubani. He also served as Minister of State for Home Affairs from April 6, 2008, to May 23, 2009, under then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He resigned from the party on November 11, 2025, when Bihar was undergoing Assembly elections, the results of which were announced on November 14, alleging Rahul Gandhi to be “dictatorial and non-democratic who does listen to even senior party leaders in the Congress”.

However, there was no information of any attack on Mr. Ahmad’s residences either in Patna or in Madhubani on Tuesday (January 27, 2026). “I do not know why Mr. Ahmad is saying all this bunkum… there is no attack today on any of his residences by anyone… he may have given such statements in media for cheap publicity,” Bihar Congress spokesperson Asit Nath Tiwari told The Hindu.

Other State party leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, also “condemned” Mr. Ahmad’s recent statements towards the “top party leadership” and said he might be doing all this for “cheap publicity”.

Of late, there was buzz in political circles in Bihar that all six Congress MLAs would switch their political allegiance to the JD(U). However, after meeting the top party leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, in New Delhi recently, the MLAs refuted the speculation and expressed loyalty to the party.