’Tea seller’ politics hots up as ’Lalu chai dukaan’ opens

mangaloretoday.com / NDTV

Patna/Muzaffarpur, Feb 22:  After BJP opened tea stalls to hard sell Narendra Modi’s image of a leader rising from a humble background, RJD too has done the same in the name of party chief Lalu Prasad claiming that he was the "real" tea seller.

 

Besides providing free cuppa and biscuits to people, the party men at the ’Lalu chai dukaan’ would tell them about the alleged "falsehood" of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

An unfazed BJP, however, said such a "monkey trick" would have no impact on the voters.

Alleging that Mr Modi’s claim of being a tea vendor in childhood was false and asserting that unlike him its chief Lalu Prasad was a "real" tea seller, RJD has opened roadside tea shops at strategic locations in Muzaffarpur district for its own brand of "Chai per charcha" (discussion over tea).

’Lalu chai dukaan’ followed the RJD chief questioning the authenticity of Narendra Modi selling tea in childhood and claiming himself to be the "real" tea seller at a shop of his brother in Patna during his student days.

"We distribute about 1000 cups of tea along with biscuits to people free from ’Lalu chai dukaan’ during an hour long discussion every evening to tell people about truth of Mr Prasad and Narendra Modi," Muzaffarpur RJD spokesman and the man behind the tea programme Iqbal Shami told PTI.

The first such tea stall was opened on February 20 at Zero Mile in Ahiapur at the trijunction of roads leading to Mithilanchal, Samastipur and Samastipur, Mr Shami said adding two more stalls were opened at Bochaha More and Beria bus stand.

He said more such stalls will be opened in every village and blocks of Muzaffarpur and they will run till March 3 when Mr Modi is scheduled to address a rally at Muzaffarpur.

Former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi mocked Mr Prasad for copying his party’s campaign, terming it as a "monkey trick".

"Everybody knows about the humble background of Narendra Modi as a tea seller on trains in his childhood. By aping him, Lalu Prasad will not be able to impress people," he told