Ex-Congress leader, who called Rahul Gandhi ‘darpok’, claims threat to life

Former Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad (Image: ANI)

• Shakeel Ahmad alleges Congress leaders plan attacks on his residences in Bihar
• Ahmad claims party instructed burning his effigy over remarks on Rahul Gandhi
• Congress leader Manickam Tagore calls Ahmad a betrayer after his criticism

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Days after he called Rahul Gandhi a ‘darpok’ (coward) and insecure, former Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad on Tuesday said his residence faces a threat of attack.

Ahmad, a three-time MLA and a two-term MP from Bihar, on Tuesday said he has been secretly informed by some Congress colleagues that the national leadership of the party has given instructions to carry out attacks at his residences in Patna and Madhubani on the pretext of burning his effigies.

"This is against the principles of democracy," he wrote on X.

In another post, he uploaded a screenshot of a WhatsApp message that he alleged was being circulated by party members, asking district and assembly-level leaders to burn his effigy to protest his “inappropriate statements” about Rahul Gandhi.

Sharing the screenshot on X, Ahmad wrote: “Now my information has turned out to be absolutely spot on. Many thanks to the old mates from Congress. There's a saying in our Bihar that old friends are the ones who come in handy. Is this happening without Rahul ji's orders?”

अब तो मेरी जानकारी बिल्कुल सही साबित हुई। काँग्रेस के पुराने साथियों का बहुत धन्यवाद। हमारे बिहार में एक कहावत कि पुराने दोस्त ही काम आते हैं। क्या यह राहुल जी के आदेश के बिना हो रहा है? pic.twitter.com/qtgBCemfH4

— Dr Shakeel Ahmad (@Ahmad_Shakeel) January 26, 2026

Ahmad, who has been a former union minister and a party general secretary, had quit the Congress after the Bihar assembly elections in 2025.

Last week, Ahmad called Rahul Gandhi a 'darpok' and an insecure leader and claimed he is only promoting young leaders who sing his paeans in the party.

He said Gandhi finds himself uncomfortable in the presence of senior leaders who have a public standing and thus promotes only those who have no base.

The former Congress leader also called Gandhi "dictatorial" and "non-democratic" and claimed he does not listen to senior colleagues in the Congress.

"Rahul Gandhi is a coward and an insecure person. He does not get that 'boss feeling' before anyone who is senior to him or has a big public support. He is uncomfortable with any such person and is thus dictatorial and not democratic," Ahmad told PTI.

Congress leader Manickam Tagore hit back at Shakeel Ahmad for his remarks, calling him a 'betrayer' and a 'Jaichand'.

"I am not shocked. Just saddened, yet again, by how betrayal becomes loud when courage walks the longest road," Tagore said in a post on X on Sunday.