Where power slips away from the Indian National Congress, BJP national president and Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda argues, it never seems to return — and the party's desperate search for allies is now doing more harm than good to those who offer a shoulder. In a sharply-worded post on X on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, Nadda deployed one of Hindi's most evocative metaphors to frame the Congress as a parasitic vine strangling its own hosts.

Writing in Hindi, Nadda stated: 'कांग्रेस जहां भी सत्ता से बाहर होती है, वहां लंबे समय तक सत्ता में वापस नहीं आ पाती।' — 'Wherever Congress loses power, it cannot return to power for a very long time.' He then reached for a botanical image: the party, he said, now behaves like amarbel — dodder, a leafless parasitic creeper that twines around other plants and drains them dry. 'The tree it takes support from,' he wrote, 'it withers that too.'

The 'amarbel' charge and what it targets

The amarbel metaphor is a pointed dig at the Congress party's alliance strategy since its back-to-back losses in the 2014 and 2019 general elections, after which the BJP-led NDA displaced the Congress-led UPA at the centre. Critics within the BJP have long argued that Congress, rather than rebuilding its own organisational strength, has leaned on regional partners — and that those partners have paid an electoral price for the association. Nadda's post crystallises that argument into a single, memorable image.

The hashtag #SaveDemocracyRemoveAnarchy anchors the post within an active political campaign framing, signalling that the attack is part of a coordinated BJP messaging push rather than an isolated remark.

Nadda's call for Congress introspection

The BJP president closed with a challenge directed squarely at the opposition: before raising questions about others, Congress should look inward — 'अपने गिरेबान में झांकना चाहिए' ('look into its own collar,' a Hindi idiom for self-examination) — and ask itself why voters have kept it out of power for so long. The phrase aatmamanthan (deep self-reflection) that he used carries a particular resonance in Indian political discourse, having been invoked at pivotal moments of soul-searching by parties across the spectrum.

As BJP national president, Nadda regularly issues such broadsides to set the party's political tone. The post's combative register, vivid imagery, and viral hashtag suggest it is designed as much for grassroots mobilisation as for elite political commentary.

Congress has yet to respond publicly

No immediate rebuttal from the Congress leadership had surfaced at the time of publication. How the party frames its reply — whether it contests the alliance-building critique, pivots to governance issues, or challenges the BJP's own coalition record — will signal its tactical posture heading into the next electoral cycle. The exchange, brief as it is, maps the fault lines of a political contest that is already fully in motion.