Patna, October 23
People of Bihar celebrated Divali this year on a different note with “Lalu bomb”, “Nitish flowerpot” and “Rabri rockets” hitting local markets.
For the makers of crackers, they tried to make full use of the political rivalry between Lalu and Nitish by naming the crackers after them.
Patna’s wholesale firecracker market was thus literally flooded with crackers bearing names and photographs of these politicians.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav expressed happiness over the fact that finally Nitish’s name had been included in the list of brand names.
“It is good they are now thinking of Nitishji. Earlier they used to use my name only,” said Mr Yadav.
Mr Yadav was correct because people of the state had been used to seeing products ranging from dolls to fertilisers named after him.
Amarnath Pandey, a customer, said he came to know three days before Divali that there were Lalu and Nitish brand of crackers in the market.
“My children pestered me to buy these crackers and I found these products a great hit,” he said.
A seller, Sailesh Kumar, said: “We had flowerpots in the name of Nitish Kumar and there was star bomb named after Lalu. Both these products were in high demand.”
The response to Rabri rocket was, however, not very encouraging.
Sparkles named after Congress president Sonia Gandhi and bombs named after Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat also did good business in the state.
Another seller, Manish, said: “Popular names do help raise the sale of items. The firecrackers named after these politicians catch customers’ fancy.”
