Kiren Rijiju Slams Congress, Opposition Over ‘Mocking’ Bihar Woman in Vote List Protest

New Delhi: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday lashed out at the Congress party and INDIA bloc MPs for allegedly “mocking” Minta Devi, a Bihar resident whose image was used during the Opposition’s protest against alleged voter list manipulation.

In a post on X, Rijiju wrote, “Whole day Congress and opposition MPs used the photo of Minta Devi, mocked her that she is 124 years old!… Will Congress apologise to the nation?”

The minister also targeted Congress for hypocrisy, pointing to the recent sacking of Karnataka minister KN Rajanna after he admitted to irregularities in the voter list during the party’s own tenure. “Congress Minister in Karnataka has also accused his own Congress Government,” Rijiju remarked.

Rijiju attached a video featuring Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressing reporters on voter list manipulation, followed by a clip of Minta Devi angrily criticising the Opposition for using her image without consent.

The controversy erupted a day earlier when several INDIA bloc MPs, led by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, staged a protest in New Delhi against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar. During the demonstration, MPs wore T-shirts printed with Minta Devi’s picture and the phrase “124 not out”, a reference to her age being incorrectly recorded as 124 years in the voter list.

Minta Devi, who was projected as the symbolic face of the protest, later expressed her outrage, accusing the Opposition of exploiting her identity for political mileage.