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In a new twist to the controversy over the marital status of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the younger brother of his wife, Jashodaben, Ashok Modi, said what the BJP leader's elder brother, Somabhai, had said on the marriage was "a lie".
Dismissing Somabhai's claim that his sister's marriage with the Gujarat chief minister was a "child marriage", Ashok said, "What Somabhai is saying is a lie. It was not a child marriage. Jashodaben was 17 or 18 years old when she was married off to Modi, who is only six months elder to her. She had studied till Class 7."
Jashodaben, 62, is a retired government school teacher living in Vadnagar, Modi's home town. She lives with her elder brother in a small village called Brahmanvada.
