Stepping up his attack on BJP's Prime Ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar today said never before he had seen a person in the race for the country's top job seeking votes for himself or herself.
"We have seen Prime Ministers like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Dr Manmohan Singh. But they never asked people to vote for themselves but for the country. But here is a person who is seeking votes for himself," Pawar said, addressing an election rally for NCP candidate from North-East Mumbai, Sanjay Dina Patil.
Patil, the sitting MP, is pitted against BJP's Kirit Somaiya and AAP's Medha Patkar, among others.
Attributing Gujarat's development to the previous Chief Ministers of Congress and the "hardworking" people, Pawar claimed the state's growth rate had declined during Modi's tenure.
"Previous Congress Chief Ministers such as Madhavsingh Solanki, Amarsinh Chaudhary and Chimanbhai Patel had done better work than Modi," he said.
Modi was taking the credit for the hard work of ordinary Gujaratis, he said.
"He (Modi) in his rally in Wardha said that Mahatma Gandhi gave the call of `Quit India' from there....Luckily, Modi did not say that the call was given at Ahmedabad," Pawar quipped.