He bats looking at wicketkeeper: Rahul Gandhi's cricket jibe at PM Modi

After his rear-view mirror drive jibe at prime minister, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday likened Narendra Modi to a cricketer who bats looking at the wicketkeeper without knowing from where the ball is coming.

"If Sachin Tendulkar would have batted looking at the wicketkeeper, could he have scored a single run? Our Prime Minister is such a cricketer who looks at the wicketkepeer and does not know from where the ball is coming from," he said.

Gandhi's jibe at Modi at a public meeting here came as he attacked him for speaking about the Congress' past rather than about the future.

Earlier, speaking at Karatagi in Raichur district, Gandhi asked Modi to stop giving speeches on the past and start working, saying he did not have much time before completing his term.

"You will have to tell the country during the elections what you did in the last five years. It is going to be five years and you have not even opened your account," he told Modi, making him the focal point of his attack in a series of roadside and public meetings.

On the second day of his ongoing "Janashirvada Yatra" in northern parts of the state in the poll-bound Karnataka, he said Modi was delving into the past to attack the Congress rather than accounting for his performance.

Gandhi said, "BJP failed to create jobs, bring back black money and brought down the economy, but all Modi talks about is Congress is this, Congress is that." He said the country had made Modi Prime Minister to provide employment to youth, to help farmers, to establish schools and hospitals and not to talk about Congress party.

"Modi ji stop giving speeches and start working, because you don't have much time.

Invoking the pithy saying "work is worship" of Karnataka's 12th-century social reformer and philosopher, Basavanna, Gandhi said, "Modi ji you keep taking Basavanna's name, but you don't work. You keep talking, but you don't work. Even if you talk, you only talk about the past."

Hitting back at Modi for criticising the policies of erstwhile Congress governments, Gandhi had said at a public meeting at Ballari on Saturday that he is running the country by looking just in the rear view mirror, "which will cause accidents".

"You (Modi) drive the vehicle by just looking in the rear view mirror, which will cause accidents. This country cannot be run by looking in the rear view mirror," Gandhi had said, taking a swipe at Modi.

The Congress president is on a four-day poll campaign tour in Hyderabad-Karnataka region.

Hyderabad-Karnataka region comprises the districts of Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari and Kalaburagi which were part of the Nizam ruled Hyderabad state till 1948.