Narendra Modi calls Rahul Gandhi 'childish' over 'toffee' and 'balloon' comments

Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi for dubbing Gujarat development model as a 'toffee model', Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, compared the Congress Vice President with children and said the word 'toffee' has caught his fancy after he repeatedly spoke about 'balloon'.

Addressing a rally in Hazaribagh, Modi said he thought serious issues would be discussed in this election and the galaxy of BJP leaders including LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley and Murli Manohar Joshi were speaking on various subjects.

"But on the other side, there is a player whose mind doesn't move away from childishness. Such an important election about the country's future but for ten days, a word that gripped him was 'balloon'. For ten days he kept repeating it. However, children don't stick to a toy for too long and now he has caught the word 'toffee'.

"Now you tell me what to do. I am not of an age where I can play with balloons," Modi said in a clear dig at Rahul who yesterday dubbed the Gujarat model of development as 'toffee' model contending that land was given to few industrialists at throwaway prices.

He said it was for the people to decide whether or not they wanted those who play with balloons and crave for toffees.

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate said that as a child who sold tea, he had not got toffees but had his sights set on trophies.