Patna: Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday drew the ire of the Congress-RJD combine for terming as 'honeymoon' the frequent holidays of Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav, taking time off the hustle and bustle of politics.
The septuagenarian, who is known to not weigh his words carefully, made the remark here during an interaction with journalists after a meeting of his Hindustani Awam Morcha, which is a part of the ruling NDA in the state.
Manjhi, who appeared in public after spending weeks at a hospital, convalescing from COVID 19, had disapproved of Yadav choosing to be outside Bihar at a time when opposition parties had the opportunity to cash in on the farmers' protests.
The HAM chief, who quit the RJD-led Grand Alliance shortly before the assembly elections, said he was similarly disappointed when in 2019, after the drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, the RJD leader chose to spend months away from Bihar, frittering away the opportunity to place the Nitish Kumar government on the mat on issues like floods and the killer brain fever.
'I would say the three 'yuvrajs' (crown princes) Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav and (LJP president) Chirag Paswan lack in maturity. Whenever their presence is required in the country or in the state, they are away somewhere, enjoying a honeymoon,' Manjhi - a party-hopper who has previously been in both the Congress and the RJD - had said on Wednesday.
Peeved at the innuendo, Bihar Congress spokesman Rajesh Rathore hit back recalling an incident of a few years ago when one of Manjhi's sons was allegedly caught in a hotel with a woman other than his wife.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal, shared on its official Twitter handle, old news clippings in which Manjhi sought to defend his son Praveen with the contention that there was nothing objectionable in a relationship between two consenting adults.