Patna: BJP leaders in Bihar were not amused after Lalu Prasad's younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav took potshots at Amit Shah on the BJP national president's birthday on Sunday.
"A very happy birthday to Sh. Amit Shah Ji. May he be blessed with good health, success & his wealth multiply 256000000 times. (16000*16000)," Tejashwi tweeted. It was obviously a barb over the ongoing controversy over Shah's son Jay Shah, whose company's turnover reportedly multiplied 16,000 times in a year.
RJD leaders said Tejashwi, who is facing interrogations by CBI, income-tax authorities and the Enforcement Directorate, was getting back at the BJP which had taunted him for skipping summons from the central agencies several times. When the Jay Shah controversy first surfaced, Tejashwi had asked the Prime Minister through Twitter action the CBI proposes to take on Jay Shah.
The return fire left BJP leaders fuming.
"In a birthday wish politics is kept apart," remarked a senior BJP leader who did not want to be identified. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishes birthday greetings to even his bitterest political foes without indulging in politics over it. But we could not have expected better from Tejashwi Yadav. His father on Friday had alleged that Narendra Modi sold charas instead of tea from a train platform."
JDU leader Sanjay Singh alleged that Tej Pratap, Tejashwi's elder brother, had also used abusive words for chief minister Nitish Kumar at a function held on the occasion of Govardhan Puja on Saturday.
"Will this be the language used by Bihar leaders in the future?" Sanjay asked on Sunday.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi also took potshots at Tej Pratap and Tejashwi.
"It is good that the elder brother has taken over the reins from the younger one who is busy in Delhi. As per tradition, it is the elder son who should step in the shoes of the father," Modi said in a dig at Tejashwi, who had been frequenting the national capital following summonses issued by the CBI in a land-for-hotels scam.
"The political language is going to hit the gutter level as never before," said a senior Congress leader. "It will go worst from bad to worse as days of elections come near."
