AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI: Then came Modi’s tug at people’s heartstrings: “Day and night the Congress has abused me. I keep quiet only because my priority is work.”
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, too, continued to be in damage-control mode, saying he respected the PM’s chair.
“The Congress respects the chair of Prime Minister. No one in the Congress is allowed to insult the Prime Minister.
Modiji can say anything about us. That is why we took strict action against Mani Shankar Aiyar,” he said at a rally in Chhota Udaipur.
Aiyar, who had tried hard to cover up his remark by saying he was a south Indian and not well versed in Hindi, said he was ready to undergo any punishment.
“I am ready to accept any punishment that the Congress party wants to give me. If any damage has been done to Congress because of what I said or did then I am saddened by it. I had no such intention. I am confident that under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, we will win in the Gujarat elections,” he said.
Eighty-nine seats in the Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions will go to the polls on Saturday in the first phase.