New Delhi: The 'Hunar Haat' event at the India Gate lawns in the national capital concluded on Sunday. The 10-day event also set the bells ringing for Bihar Assembly elections. Interestingly, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who sounded the poll bugle as he relished the popular Bihari delicacy 'Litti Chokha' during the event.
Following Modi's footsteps, several BJP leaders, including Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Jitendra Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Hardeep Singh Puri, Piyush Goyal, Anil Jain and Amit Shah's wife Sonal Shah were seen developing a new taste for the traditional Bihar dish.
During Hunar Haat, several vegetarian and non-vegetarian stalls were set up. Since Modi is a vegetarian and he did not visit other stalls, no other BJP leader turned to those stalls and munched on Litti Chokha.
According to visitors, the Litti Chokha at the stall was costly and not as delicious as other dishes available at the event. However, Modi chose to taste 'Litti Chokha' only.
Meanwhile, Modi's picture of eating Litti Chokha went viral on social media and perhaps didn't go down well with opposition leaders.
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कतनो खईबऽ लिट्टी चोखा, बिहार ना भुली राउर धोखा..! https://t.co/eM80wtlYla
— Tej Pratap Yadav (@TejYadav14) February 19, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">कतनो खईबऽ लिट्टी चोखा, बिहार ना भुली राउर धोखा..! https://t.co/eM80wtlYla
— Tej Pratap Yadav (@TejYadav14) February 19, 2020कतनो खईबऽ लिट्टी चोखा, बिहार ना भुली राउर धोखा..! https://t.co/eM80wtlYla
— Tej Pratap Yadav (@TejYadav14) February 19, 2020
Lalu Prasad's son and RJD MLA Tej Pratap Yadav took to Twitter to take a dig at Modi. 'Katno Khaib Litti-Chokha, Bihar na Bhuli Raura dhokha (You can eat litti chokha but Bihar will never forget your betrayal),' he tweeted in Bhojpuri.
However, Tej Pratap's brother Tejashwi Yadav praised Modi for liking the popular dish.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who arrived at Hunar Haat on Saturday to taste Litti Chokha, said that it's not right to link 'Litti Chokha' with Bihar elections.
Be it 'chana murmura' or Bihar's 'Jhalmudi', the Prime Minister is fond of light meals, Prasad said.
Coincidentally, Modi paid the surprise visit to Hunar Haat on the same day when the Bihar government was communicating with farmers in Patna, discussing ways to double their income.
Inputs from IANS
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