The BJP’s Haryana unit – celebrating a thrilling comeback Tuesday to win a historic third consecutive Assembly election – took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by sending a kilogram of jalebis, addressed to him, to the party’s Delhi office.
“On behalf of all the workers of Bhartiya Janta Party (in) Haryana, jalebis have been sent to Rahul Gandhi’s home,” the party said in a post on X. Attached was a screenshot from a food delivery app confirming an order from a Delhi-based sweets and chaat shop to Mr Gandhi.
The delivery address shown was 24, Akbar Road in Delhi – the Congress’ HQ.
The reference was to Mr Gandhi’s comment during campaigning about jalebis from Haryana’s Gohana being mass manufactured and sold across the country, as well as being exported, to generate employment and revenue for local confectioners.
भारतीय जनता पार्टी हरियाणा के समस्त कार्यकर्ताओं की तरफ से राहुल गांधी जी के लिए उनके घर पर जलेबी भिजवा दी है?? pic.twitter.com/Xi8SaM7yBj
— Haryana BJP (@BJP4Haryana) October 8, 2024
He claimed that jalebi sellers had been hurt by the central government’s GST, or Goods and Services Tax, system.
The Congress leader’s remarks drew jibes from BJP leaders, who said he was clueless about how the sweet dish was prepared.
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “I also like Gohana’s jalebi. Now, Rahul Gandhi is talking about setting up a factory in the US. But one has to understand how jalebis are made and how they are sold. It would have been better if those who wrote the chit for him had framed it properly.”
The BJP veteran said Mr Gandhi “does not do his homework properly”.
Interestingly, the Gohana jalebi had also featured in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech ahead of the Lok Sabha polls months ago.
Attacking the INDIA bloc, the Prime Minister said the Opposition bloc had a formula to have five Prime Ministers in five years if they came to power. “Ask them is the prime minister’s post our Matu Ram ki jalebi?” he asked.
The famed Gohana jalebi, according to a PTI report, came into being in 1958 when the late Matu Ram started selling it. The business is run by his grandsons Raman Gupta and Neeraj Gupta now.
“The jalebi is made of pure desi ghee, is crispy yet soft and each one weighs around 250 gram. A box of four pieces weighing a kg costs R 320. The shelf life of the sweet is more than a week,” Raman Gupta told PTI.
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