Patna: BJP working president Nitin Nabin on Tuesday called Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi a “part-time politician”, who defamed “constitutional bodies” like the Election Commission while in the country, and spoke ill of his motherland on trips abroad.
Without mentioning RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav by name, Nabin also remarked “there is another part-time politician in Bihar, too”, who failed to attend the recent state assembly session, and was “enjoying a trip abroad”.
“In contrast, we, in the BJP, are full-time politicians who believe in working 24×7. The time has come for the public to punish these political part-timers. A beginning was made in Bihar, and it shall continue in West Bengal and Kerala,” said the Bankipur MLA, who visited his constituency for the first time since getting elevated to the top party post 10 days ago.
Nabin, 45, was addressing BJP workers at a grand felicitation ceremony organised to celebrate the first son of Bihar making it to the top in the saffron party.
He is expected to succeed J P Nadda as the BJP president.
“The BJP has powerful watch towers. No hard-working member goes unnoticed and unrewarded,” Nabin asserted.
The former Bihar minister remembered his father Nabin Chandra Sinha, whose death in 2006 had led him to take the political plunge and retain the Patna Central assembly seat, which had fallen vacant upon Sinha’s demise.
“My father was not around to guide me when I joined the BJP. But, I was tutored by all the BJP workers present here. Whatever I am today, it is because of the support of party cadres and blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah,” said Nabin.
The BJP leader hailed the work culture in the party where “people worked full time, 24×7, unlike part-time politicians like Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who heaps scorn on constitutional bodies like the Election Commission and continues to speak ill of his own country on foreign soil”.
“Just look at the way the Leader of the Opposition chose to be in Germany while the Parliament was in session. We have a similar part-timer in Bihar, who remained absent when the House was in session, and was still enjoying a vacation abroad,” said Nabin, in an obvious reference to RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.
Hailing the NDA’s 202-seat haul in the recent assembly polls, Nabin claimed “the process of punishing these part-time politicians began in Bihar, and it shall continue in West Bengal and Kerala”.
Nabin, who took charge as BJP national working president on December 15, also voiced satisfaction over the party’s good show in local body polls in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh.
“We must strive to ensure that our flag flies high, in the words of Amit Shah, from panchayats to Parliament,” he said.
Nabin reached the venue, situated a few kilometres away from the airport, in a massive roadshow. He was flanked, on either side, atop an open vehicle by state BJP president Sanjay Saraogi and Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha.
Thousands of party workers marched ahead of the vehicle, which took nearly three hours to reach the destination, waving BJP flags and saffron ‘gamchas’, a style popularised by the PM during his recent visits to the state.
On the dais erected at the Miller High School ground, the venue of the function, Nabin was joined by senior party leaders like Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai, besides former ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Radha Mohan Singh and Ashwini Choubey.
