Ravi Shankar Prasad calls Rahul irresponsible, predicts NDA victory in Bihar polls

Terming Congress MP Rahul Gandhi an “irresponsible” person, BJP MP from Patna Sahib Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday predicted that the NDA would win the Bihar assembly elections despite Congress-led INDIA bloc trying its best to “mislead people” in the state.

Addressing a press conference here at the party headquarters, the former Union minister, reacting to Gandhi’s hydrogen bomb comment wherein he threatened more revelation on “vote chori”, said, “How are the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb related to the elections? Why is Rahul Gandhi demeaning himself as the leader of Opposition? The nation should understand, Rahul Gandhi is irresponsible.”

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Criticising the Congress leader and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)’s Tejashwi Yadav, who is being presented as chief ministerial face of the INDIA bloc for the upcoming Bihar elections, Prasad said, “Why Yadav was presenting himself as a number two player in Bihar when Congress has no case in the state”.

“Throughout their yatra, Rahul Gandhi was always in the front in the car, and Tejashwi Yadav stood behind him. Patna has two MPs, one of whom is me and the other is Misa Bharti. She was nowhere to be seen. Why has Tejashwi Yadav been reduced to a number two player in Bihar? Congress has no vote here and is completely at your mercy and you have become a number 2 player,” he said.

The BJP MP also hit out at the Opposition over its repeated allegations of election rigging and their accusations against the Election Commission of India (ECI) of indulging in “vote theft” for the BJP. “They are deeply pained by the fact that they cannot capture booths now, which is why they demand ballot paper time and again. By criticising the Election Commission and the SIR they are saying ‘give us the right and might to capture booths, tear away ballot papers, and let infiltrators vote’…” he said, asserting that the NDA would again form the government in the state.

To a query, the BJP leader said that the just-concluded ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ would have no impact on Bihar’s assembly election, due later this year.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi said his party would soon come out with a “hydrogen bomb” of revelations about “vote chori” following which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to show his face to the people of the country. “I want to tell the BJP people. Have you heard of anything bigger than an atom bomb, it is a hydrogen bomb. BJP people, be ready, a hydrogen bomb is coming. People are soon going to find out the reality of ‘vote chori’,” Gandhi said, adding that after the hydrogen bomb comes, “PM Modi will not be able to show his face to the country”.

Rahul Gandhi made the remarks after the INDIA bloc allies held a march marking the culmination of the Opposition’s ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar.

The Yatra, launched by Gandhi from Sasaram in Bihar on August 17, was aimed at highlighting the alleged assault on people’s right to vote through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state just a few months before it goes to polls.