Gujarat polls: Modi takes on PM over minority card

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for playing the minority card in the run up to the first phase of Assembly polls in the state.

“There has been no communal violence in Gujarat for the last ten years whereas many lost their lives in the communal violence in Assam during the summer this year,” Modi said at an election rally in Ahmedabad.

The Gujarat chief minister also referred to the recent arrest of two Palghar girls regarding a Facebook comment after the death of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray—Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan—saying that the Muslim girl among the duo actually ‘slapped’ the prime minister over minority security.

“PM Sir, she has given a slap on your face,” the chief minister said.

Offering an open challenge to the Congress to come to power in Gujarat, Modi said, “The Congress defeat is certain. I challenge them to come to power.”

On Sunday, Singh at an election rally in Surat, had said, “Minorities in Gujarat feel that they are unsafe in the state.”

The state goes to the polls on 13 and 17 December. The counting is on 20 December.