Motihari, (The Telegraph): A falling ceiling fan that scraped Lalu Prasad's right hand at a rally venue this afternoon prompted an unexpected call to the RJD chief, from Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress vice-president, who is believed to have taken a hard stand on Lalu because of his conviction in a fodder scam case, called around 6.30pm on the landline of the RJD leader's 10 Circular Road home in Patna. "Rahul ji asked Laluji how he was doing. He had received news of the fan hitting Laluji and hence had called to enquire," said RJD spokesperson Pragati Mehta.

The incident happened around five hours earlier at Lakhaura in East Champaran, 170km northwest of Patna. Lalu, who reached around 50 minutes ahead of the 2pm meeting, was seated on the dais of a makeshift stage, sipping tea as he waited to speak. Suddenly, he pointed to the fan above him that was wobbling dangerously and asked the organisers to check it.

Within seconds, the fan came hurtling down, one of its blades hitting Lalu's right hand, causing the tea to spill from his cup onto his kurta. Lalu winced in pain, but held on to his cup and kept sitting.

"Lalu ji had a narrow escape. I was present on the stage when the fan fell, thank god nothing serious happened. It was a miracle," said Vinod Shrivastava, Lalu's private secretary and the RJD candidate from Motihari Assembly constituency for whom the rally had been organised.

This is the second time in three days that Lalu has survived a rally scare. On Tuesday, a portion of the dais at his election meeting at Arwal caved in because of overloading. Lalu was on another side of the wooden dais and that saved him from falling.

Unfazed by the falling fan, Lalu addressed the Lakhaura meeting and flashed what he said was his "lucky charm" - a pendant with a picture of Goddess Durga. "Ma Sherawali (Durga) mere saath hain, no evil force active against me can do me any harm," he told the cheering crowd. At Arwal too, he had brushed away the mishap, saying "nothing bad can happen to a good man like me".

RJD sources said today's mishap had proved lucky for Lalu since Rahul had called him. The last time the two leaders met - the RJD sources could not confirm if they spoke - was in February this year at a dinner hosted by Sonia.

Lalu's relations with the Congress's Top Two went into the freezer ever since Sonia and her son bestowed the "most-favoured" status on Nitish Kumar, ostensibly because of the fodder taint on the RJD boss. Rahul, for example, didn't give Lalu time when the Bihar leaders were trying to stitch together an alliance for the elections in June, though he met Nitish.

Lalu, not one to take a snub kindly, chose not to attend Sonia's iftar party in July - attended by Rahul and Nitish among others - and went on to organise his do on the same day. Even after the Grand Alliance was firmed up, during the mahagathbandhan's Swabhiman rally at Patna's Gandhi Maidan on August 30, Lalu chose to sit firm on the dais while Nitish went down to greet and escort Sonia to the stage. More recently, Lalu stayed away from Rahul's first election rally on September 19 at Ramnagar in West Champaran.

Accidents have got Lalu unexpected callers. In 2013, Lalu met with a minor car accident in Vaishali. He was surprised when he got a call from Narendra Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, enquiring about his health.

Photo credit: The Telegraph