Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday hit out at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for raking up the marital issue of the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Gandhi targeted Modi after he admitted for the first time that he was married.
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad threatened a tit for tat response.
"Rahul Gandhi, we know many sensitive facts about your family, some of them are well documented, but we will not raise them because this is our virtue and we maintain a standard. I want to reply to his (Gandhi's) question. His (Modi's) elder brother has written a comprehensive letter. He had a child marriage. He became Sangh's office bearer at a very early age. There is no need for public debate if the family has settled the matter," Prasad said.
Prasad also slammed Congress for using BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to criticise Modi.
"Congress party is very desperate. They are worried whether they will touch the three- figure mark after the elections or not. Their praise for Atal Bihari Vajpayee is guided by electoral political consideration," Prasad added.
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Earlier in the day, Gandhi in a rally in Doda said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was raising hollow slogans about women dignity and their empowerment, as its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi even hesitates in taking the name of his wife.
While filing a poll affidavit on Wednesday in Vadodara in Gujarat, Modi has for the first time acknowledged that he is married to Jashodaben, a retired school teacher, from whom he had separated decades ago.
Modi wrote the name Jashodaben in the column titled spouse. He had kept it blank during previous successive state elections that he had fought in the past.
