Although there have been many rail ministers from Bihar, he knew more about the railways than any of them as he had once sold tea on trains, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi claimed today.
"As a seller of tea on trains in childhood, I know more about the railways than many of them," Modi told the gathering at the massive 'Hunkar Rally' at Gandhi Maidan here.
"As a tea seller, I knew the difficulty of entering trains after cajoling travelling ticket checkers and police," he said.
Among the leaders from Bihar who have served as railway minister are Congress leaders LN Mishra and Kedar Pandey.
In more recent times, Ram Vilas Paswan had led the ministry as part of the United Front government under HD Deve Gowda.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had himself held the top chair at Rail Bhawan as part the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav was a high-profile Railway Minister in the UPA-I government who used to call himself "Prime Minister of the Railways".
Prasad had won accolades for not effecting any rise in passenger fares during the five years between 2005 to 2010 when he was the Rail Minister.
