'Modi is anti-poor, anti-women; can't spell agriculture'

Against the backdrop of European Union ambassadors engaging with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Congress Friday dubbed him as "anti-poor and anti-women" and one "who does not know how to spell agriculture".

The party also sought to project Bharatiya Janata Party as a divided house saying as to why it should waste time to know who is BJP's prime ministerial candidate when there were seven contenders in the opposition party.

At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary sidestepped questions on the "clean chit" given to Modi by the European Union and instead asked whether the controversial chief minister has got visa from the United States.

"He has no respect for his own wife or someone else's wife.... He is anti-poor, anti-rural development, anti-women. He lives in urban fantasies... and he does not know how to spell agriculture," Chowdhary said.

Asked about the reported statements of JD-U chief Sharad Yadav implying that the corporates were backing Modi, Chowdhary said that the JD-U leader was intelligent and was not given to making accusation without substantive evidence.

The Congress attack came at a time when there has been growing chorus in sections of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar to make Modi as PM candidate of the party and reports of envoys of EU countries having a lunch with Modi as part of efforts to engage with him.

On Thursday, the AICC had sought to project Modi as a state leader and dismissed suggestion that he had hijacked Rahul Gandhi's agenda of connecting with youth.

Two days back, the Gujarat chief minister used a college platform in the national capital to project himself nationally saying his focus was on development politics and not that of vote-bank, which he said has "ruined" the nation.