A post featuring an image of a Hindi newspaper article is being circulated online with the claim that, ahead of the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, the Congress — in its manifesto prepared along with its alliance partners, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left parties under the Mahagathbandhan — has revealed its “hidden agenda,” including a promise to legalise beef in Bihar.
Bihar prohibits the slaughter of cows, calves, bulls, bullocks and female buffaloes under the Bihar Preservation and Improvement of Animals Act, 1955.
What does the article from the post state?: The article claims that Congress is planning to increase its support for “Love Jihad.”
It accuses the party of following the same path as major terrorist organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami and Al-Qaeda.
The piece also alleges that the Congress manifesto is as dangerous as the PFI 2047 Vision-- an alleged internal document of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) that supposedly outlines a “sinister plan to transform India into an Islamic state by the year 2047."
What is the claim?: The post claims that, to appease the 18 percent Muslim voters in Bihar, the Congress party has proposed to legalise cow beef in the state.
What is the truth? : The claim that the Congress party has promised to legalise beef in Bihar in its 2025 Assembly election manifesto is false.
No such statement or policy proposal appears in the official manifesto.
What we found: We ran a reverse image search and found multiple posts with the same clip being widely circulated.
We also conducted relevant keyword searches, but did not find any credible or verified reports making similar claims.
We analysed the official Mahagathbandhan Manifesto for the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections and found no mention of any promise
related to legalising beef or changing cow-slaughter laws in the state.
The key promises in the Mahagathbandhan Manifesto include those on Employment and education reforms, Healthcare and social welfare schemes, Agricultural reforms and farmer support, Women’s empowerment programmes, Infrastructure and development projects.
No section of the manifesto refers to beef legalisation, Love Jihad, or any communal policy.
We traced the earliest post through a reverse image search and found that the same article clip had gone viral the previous year, just before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
We also checked the Congress’s 2024 Lok Sabha manifesto (Nyay Patra) and found no such mention there either.
Conclusion: The viral clipping being shared online has no basis in any official document released by the Congress party. The viral article and social media posts are part of misinformation being spread online ahead of the elections.
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