Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi waves to supporters during an election rally in West Champaran in Bihar yesterday.

IANS
New Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday slammed Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and dubbed as “immature” his speech at an election rally in Champaran in Bihar.
“Mr Rahul Gandhi needs a new script writer as his speeches have become stale. It was an extremely immature speech,” BJP spokesman M J Akbar said.
“At one point of time during his speech, Mr Gandhi said that you can’t take economic decisions in the company of such people who wear costly watches and keep costly pens. He may not understand the value of a pen but a mature man does,” Akbar added.
He questioned the absence of Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad from the Champaran rally.
“It is now clear why seniors like Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad did not share the dais with him,” he said.
At the Champaran rally, Gandhi ridiculed Modi over his poll promises and called him a “feku”. Loosely translated, the Hindi word “feku” means someone who bluffs.
“He had promised two lakh jobs, promised Rs15 lakh in each of your accounts, to control inflation. One year of the Modi government has gone. Did it happen? Has anyone got Rs15 lakh? Has inflation been controlled? Has anyone got employment? Feku tha, hai, (was and is a feku),” the Congress vice president said without taking Modi’s name.
On employment, Gandhi said during the Lok Sabha campaign Modi had promised to revive sugar mills in Champaran but nothing had been done.
“Modi has never met poor people, workers and labourers. He has no time for them. Modi only meets people wearing costly suits,” Gandhi said and told the people of Bihar to be wary of Modi and his “suited-booted friends” who may take away their land in the name of development.
Gandhi warned the crowd at the rally that the uprooted landless people would find no shelter in big cities as they would be treated as outsiders and would be driven away from there too.
Bihar will have five-phase elections between October 12 and November 5 to elect the 243-member assembly. Counting of votes will take place on November 8.
Meanwhile, the grand alliance in Bihar released its seat adjustment list for all the assembly constituencies, with JD-U, RJD to contest on 101 seats each and Congress on 41 seats.
At a joint press conference of the grand alliance leaders, JD-U state president Vashisht Narain Singh released the list. But none of the parties announced its contestants’ names.
“The seat identification has been completed. We have successfully identified the seats on which each one of us will contest the Bihar assembly polls,” Singh said.
Also yesterday JD-U legislator Satish Kumar, who defeated former Bihar chief minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi, yesterday joined the BJP after he was denied a party ticket.
Kumar was denied a ticket as Tejaswi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad, is set to make his electoral debut from Raghopur assembly constituency.
l RJD legislator Bhai Dinesh yesterday began a hunger strike demanding a ticket for the assembly polls and threatened to set himself afire if the request was denied.
“I have decided to immolate myself in the party office tomorrow if I am denied the ticket,” Dinesh, the RJD legislator from Jagdishpur assembly constituency in Bhojpur district, said.