Patna: Lalu Prasad's younger son on Thursday showed he has inherited his father's way with words as well as the affinity for the Congress.

Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the leader of Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "Gappu" for the BJP calling Congress vice-president "Pappu", the tit-for-tat jab coming a day after the Election Commission barred the ruling BJP in Gujarat from using the word "Pappu" in their advertisements - apparently targeting Rahul - calling it "derogatory". "The so-called Pappu is not in power and despite that he is performing and achieving his goals whereas Gappu (read Narendra Modi), who is misusing all his machinery, is shaking now," Tejashwi said. "Pappu is becoming more popular whereas Gappu's graph is going drastically down despite spending crores on the IT (information-technology) cell (of the BJP)."

Tejashwi and Rahul speak to each other quite frequently. On November 9, the Congress leader had called up Tejashwi to wish him on his 28th birthday.

For the past few days, Tejashwi had trained his gun on chief minister Nitish Kumar, but on Thursday he chose to target the Prime Minister the way his father does.

Asked if calling Rahul as Pappu was not derogatory, Tejashwi told The Telegraph: "I am saying that the so-called-Pappu image build by the BJP has not affected him at all despite their continuous effort. Rahul ji has proved himself by his leadership and now people are praising him. It is Gappu Singh Narendra Modi who has not done any work except talking big."

One can become famous for a short time through propaganda by the bhakts (as Modi's critics call the Prime Minister's fans) but one cannot hide the reality from people, Tejashwi said, adding that the Prime Minister's promise of bringing achchhe din has been exposed.

"Just baseless branding (of Rahul) with words like illiterate, corrupt, yuvraj, dynastic, Pappu, etc won't raise the PM's stature, but only expose his cunning mind," Tejashwi said. "Gappu can only dream of commanding respect from the Opposition like Vajpayeeji. He (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) never made fun of other leaders and gave them due credit."

A leader should be judged not by the tall promises he can make but the extent to which he can fulfil those promises, Tejashwi said.

"Inability to prove his claims will reduce PM's persona to just being a Gappu. Rahul Gandhi ji is a confident, knowledgeable, bright, determinant, dynamic, resolute and valiant leader. On the other hand, Gappu Singh and gang are spitting venom and spreading lies across the country," Tejashwi said.

He said the Prime Minister has dragged the Indian political discourse down to new lows.