Patna,(BiharTimes): Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party is facing a tough challenge from a new JD(U)-RJD alliance ahead of the August 21 by-poll for 10 seats a section of the saffron party is urging the party leadership to name a ‘chai-wallah’ as the chief ministerial candidate. This chai-wallah does not have Modi as the sirname, nor has he worked in his father’s tea-stall as NaMo claimed during the Lok Sabha election campaign.

Instead he had worked in the tea-stall of his grand-father outside a cinema hall near Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.

The man in question is Nand Kishore Yadav, the leader of opposition in the state Assembly. His name figured after some senior leaders like Union ministers Radha Mohan Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad reportedly suggested Sushil Kumar Modi’s name at the two-day state executive committee meeting which concluded in Patna on Sunday.

Those who are rooting for Nand Kishore want to project him not just because he is somewhere related to tea business, but also because he is a Yadav. In contrast Sushil Modi comes from a trading community.

So the argument is that if the party wants to counter the alliance between JD(U) and RJD––or the Mandal force––it needs to project a Yadav as the chief ministerial candidate. After all during the Lok Sabha election campaign Narendra Modi took extra care to woo Yadavs into the BJP. The swift manner in which Ram Kripal Yadav got ticket from Patliputra speaks about the preference given to the Yadavs in the party as they form the strongest social group in Bihar.

Though Nand Kishore said he had worked in his grand-father’s tea stall yet he added that the party's top leaders will decide on his role in the election.

Nand Kishore Yadav and Sushil Modi have good relationship yet there is a section of partymen who are opposed to the candidature of the latter. Leaders like Giriraj Singh and even Ashwani Kumar Choubey had then openly accused SuMo of not letting them get ticket of their choice. It is other thing that both of them won from Nawada and Buxar, the seats which they reluctantly accepted.

These sections then vowed to teach SuMo a lesson in the next Assembly election.

However, it is to be seen whether Narendra Modi backs Sushil Modi or a man who too is remotely linked to tea business.

However, some political observers doubt that the same ploy of projecting anyone linked to chaiwallah would click twice in quick suceession. If Nand Kishore would be projected he would be done so not because he is a grandson of a chaiwallah but because of his caste.