Goa BJP retorts, asks Mani Shankar Aiyar to open bar

The "beverage" war between the Congress and the BJP over senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's tea-selling comment against Narendra Modi during the All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting in New Delhi got more intense Saturday.

At the AICC session in the national capital, Aiyar had claimed that Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, will never become prime minister. "But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him," the senior Congressman had said Friday.

The Goa BJP said Saturday that instead of talking about opening tea shops at the AICC meeting, Aiyar might consider starting a wholesale liquor store and bar in Goa, just for himself.

"Instead of talking about getting tea stalls at the AICC meeting, Aiyar should think of starting a wholesale liquor and bar for himself in Goa," state BJP vice president Wilfred Mesquita told reporters here.

"I am totally willing to help him if he starts the liquor business in Goa," he further said.

Modi has, in the past, said that as a child he used to sell tea at a railway station in Gujarat.

Mesquita also took on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, after the latter attacked Modi, claiming the BJP's PM hopeful was obsessed with one-man rule.

"One Gandhi family has been ruling the Congress and India for decades now. Rahul should consider commenting on one dynastic rule before commenting on Modi," Mesquita said.