The Election Commission of India (ECI) has officially announced the schedule for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. Amid this, a newspaper clipping is going viral on social media (here, here, and here) with claims that the Congress manifesto for the 2025 Bihar Assembly election has allegedly made a promise to legalise beef. The post further alleges that this is a “pro-Muslim” Congress manifesto. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The 2025 Bihar Assembly election Congress manifesto promises to legalise beef.
Fact: There is no truth in the claim that the Congress manifesto for the 2025 Bihar Assembly election promises to legalise beef. The Mahagathbandhan manifesto contains no such mention, and Congress has not released a separate manifesto for Bihar. The viral clipping actually refers to the 2024 Lok Sabha “Nyay Patra” manifesto dated 05 April 2024. There is no promise to legalise beef in either manifesto. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon reviewing the viral newspaper clipping closely, it is observed that the clipping only mentions the Congress party and not the Mahagathbandhan. Congress, which is part of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, has released the “India Alliance’s Resolution Letter 2025,” titled “Tejashwi Pledge.” The party has not issued a separate manifesto for the Bihar elections. Additionally, the viral clipping faintly shows the date 05 April 2024 in the background, and its last paragraph refers to the Congress manifesto as the “Nyay Patra.” The Congress Party released its “Nyay Patra” manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on 05 April 2024, consisting of 48 pages, as stated in the clipping’s headline.
We reviewed the Mahagathbandhan manifesto for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections and found no mention of legalising beef. Instead, it focuses on protecting minority rights, postponing the Waqf Amendment Bill, ensuring transparency in Waqf property management, preventing attacks on religious places, curbing communal violence, hate speech and mob lynching, and handing over the management of Bodh Gaya temples to the Buddhist community. It also promises to improve madarsa infrastructure and teacher appointments, form a state equivalence board for madarsa degrees, preserve Urdu as the second state language, recruit community health workers from minority groups, improve minority welfare schemes, implement Sachar Committee recommendations, and support the economic and educational development of Pasmanda Muslims.
We also reviewed the Congress manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and found no mention of legalising beef there either. The claims made in the viral newspaper clipping are neither in the Mahagathbandhan manifesto for the 2025 Bihar elections nor in the Congress manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
We could not independently ascertain which newspaper published this clipping during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
To sum up, the viral claim that the Congress manifesto for the 2025 Bihar election promises to legalise beef is fake.
