Modi 'congratulates' mosquitoes for daring to bite Rahul

The Gujarat CM's remark may trigger another war of words between the BJP and the Congress

In a remark that is likely to trigger another war of words between BJP and Congress, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated the mosquitoes of Bundelkhand region for daring to bite Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing an election rally here, Modi, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, said, "I want to congratulate the mosquitoes as they had dared to bite Shahzade (Rahul), because no one from his family had been touched in the last hundred years."

Let alone touching, if anyone said a word against the Gandhi family, its loyalists would not spare him or her, Modi added.

Rahul had said last month at a public meeting that he suffered mosquitoes bites when he was visiting the area in 2009.

Modi said he wanted to fight elections on the issue of development, but the Congress was shying away from this, and it was only interested in increasing its vote banks.

Congressmen did not have any sense of responsibility and they continued to be involved in one scam or the other, he said.

In contrast, Modi said, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had visited almost every village in the state and given an account of the work done by his government.