Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is "immature" and stated that no one could become a leader by "denigrating India abroad." Rijiju was addressing a press conference in Pune when he also predicted a comfortable win for the Mahayuti alliance — comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 on November 20, news agency PTI reported. He dismissed the opposition’s "fake narratives" and claimed they would fail to resonate with the electorate.

When asked about Gandhi’s recent accusations that the BJP was dividing people along caste and community lines, Rijiju turned the tables and said that it was the Congress that had been engaging in divisive politics throughout the Rae Bareli parliamentarian's political career.